Picnic in the Park — Photos Shipley Open Cast Site, Derbyshire & Shipley Bodge court case collapses

25 Octo­ber 2008
Pro­test­ers went to have their pic­nic.

This was rude­ly inter­rupt­ed as a per­son from the high court tried to get them to move, and seized the Veg­gies cater­ing trol­ley and escort­ed some pro­test­ers off.

The police looked on in a hun­gry man­ner at the protests organ­i­sa­tion to have a pic­nic with good healthy food.

After they went up to the entrance of what used to be Prospect farm aka Bodge House, now demol­ished.

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27 Octo­ber 2008
The first court case aris­ing from the evic­tion of Bodge House, Ship­ley, where pro­test­ers occu­pied the site of the pro­posed open cast coal mine from June until August, col­lapsed today. Case dis­missed.

One of those evict­ed in August was in Der­by Youth Court today fac­ing a charge of aggra­vat­ed tres­pass:

“at Smal­l­ey in the coun­ty of Der­byshire, hav­ing tres­passed on land, name­ly Lodge House, Smal­l­ey, and in rela­tion to a law­ful activ­i­ty, name­ly open cast min­ing, did an act, name­ly sus­pend your­self in net­ting between a build­ing and a tree, which you intend­ed to have the effect of obstruct­ing or dis­rupt­ing that activ­i­ty…”

The police wit­ness­es all turned up to do their bit, but the tri­al col­lapsed after the pros­e­cu­tion admit­ted that it did­n’t have the evi­dence to sup­port its case. The crown pros­e­cu­tor asked for an adjourn­ment, the defence object­ed, the dis­trict judge agreed with the defence and dis­missed the case.

Let’s hope the oth­ers go the same way.

Ship­ley Bodge was evict­ed in August, an extreme­ly lengthy and cost­ly exer­cise for UK Coal who, three months on, are still fac­ing deter­mined oppo­si­tion to their min­ing plans.