Clear-felling to resume at Mainshill Wood

The Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp has learned from Forestry Com­mis­sion work­ers that the land own­er at Main­shill Wood in South Lanark­shire, Lord Home, intends to con­tin­u­ing clear-felling large areas of plan­ta­tion in prepa­ra­tion for a new open cast coal mine.

Two work­ers have been remov­ing branch­es on a sec­tion of plan­ta­tion next to the huge area that was felled three months ago, and told campers that the har­vest­ing machines and a JCB would be on their way soon.

When the clear-felling start­ed in June, campers took this as a sign that work was start­ing on the site and occu­pied it, pre­vent­ing any fur­ther felling and pre­vent­ing any of the wood being removed from the site.

The area of plan­ta­tion is well with­in the intend­ed exca­va­tion area on the site. In addi­tion, Scot­tish Coal have still not car­ried out the exten­sive eco­log­i­cal sur­vey at Main­shill that was a con­di­tion of the plan­ning approval. How can an accu­rate sur­vey be con­duct­ed after all the wood­land has been removed? Bad­ger sets, bats and nests of birds of prey have all bee seen in the plan­ta­tion at Main­shill.

The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp will stop any work from tak­ing place on the site in prepa­ra­tion for the nine – there is no com­mu­ni­ty con­sent for this project. An update will be sent out as soon as there is an attempt to enter the site with heavy machin­ery.

Come to the camp this week to resist more clear-felling – the longer prepara­to­ry work is delayed, the greater the cost to Scot­tish Coal and the stronger this cam­paign grows!

Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp web­site: http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk/