Four in the dock after protest over mining site
SIX ARRESTS AT WEEKEND OVER OPENCAST DEMO
FOUR people have appeared in court after allegedly blocking the road outside a new Durham mine site.
Two protesters allegedly camped out on the A692 between Leadgate and Dipton all Saturday night with their arms locked together to stop work on an access road to an opencast mining site.
Police arrested a number of campaigners on a charge of obstructing the highway and some of the group have now appeared before magistrates.
Rebecca D’Andrea, 22, of Newcastle, pleaded guilty to obstruction of the highway at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
She was given a conditional discharge, and was ordered to pay a £20 fine and £85 court costs.
Three other people arrested at the weekend – Indigo Rumbelow, 24, of Swansea; Marta Gumkowski, 31, of Newcastle and Timothy Cutler, 24, of Bury St Edmonds – pleaded not guilty and were bailed to return to court on June 12.
Two others also arrested at the weekend – Nathan White, 39, from Newcastle, and Thomas Bradley, 38, also from Newcastle – were bailed to appear before Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on July 3.
Officers were first called to the Banks opencast site near Dipton at around 8.20pm on Saturday night.
It is alleged two campaigners locked their arms together inside a tube and formed a blockage on the A692.
Mining firm Banks Group plans to open the mine in Dipton and extract 500,000 tonnes of coal.
As part of the work to create an access road, the A692 was due to close to all traffic from the Jolly Drovers to Pontop, starting at 7pm on Tuesday and lasting until 7am on Wednesday.
Durham County Council has confirmed that planning permission for the site has already been activated.
Stephen Reed, Durham County Council’s planning development manager, said: “The developer has met all of the conditions required by the planning permission and, therefore, permission is active and the extraction of coal at the site is entirely legal.
“The company is required to create a protected right hand turn on to the site but this is through a separate 106 agreement which does not directly affect planning permission.
“Although this work has not yet been completed, it is underway.
“Under the terms of the planning permission, the company cannot take coal off the site until the work has been carried out.
“However, as Banks is not exporting coal from the site and is also well on with completing the required roadworks, it would not be appropriate or an efficient use of resource for us to take enforcement action. However, we will continue to monitor the situation.”