Eviction bosses show up at Black Wood as court hearing delayed

29.3.2010
Hours after the Black Wood Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp suc­cess­ful­ly pushed back its evic­tion hear­ing at Dun­fermline Sher­iff Court this after­noon, mem­bers of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team includ­ing Mar­tin Leyshon, Head of Resources, vis­it­ed the site to doc­u­ment its defences and pre­sum­ably to begin the process of evict­ing the camp.

29.3.2010
Hours after the Black Wood Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp suc­cess­ful­ly pushed back its evic­tion hear­ing at Dun­fermline Sher­iff Court this after­noon, mem­bers of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team includ­ing Mar­tin Leyshon, Head of Resources, vis­it­ed the site to doc­u­ment its defences and pre­sum­ably to begin the process of evict­ing the camp.

The Black Wood Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp is just over a week old so the appear­ance of the Nation­al Evic­tion Team at such short notice and before the evic­tion order for the site has even been grant­ed shows that UK Coal want rid of the camp as soon as pos­si­ble. Fur­ther still, the court papers are full of ref­er­ences to the recent­ly evict­ed Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp, with police advis­ing UK Coal that the longer the camp exists, the hard­er and more cost­ly it will be to remove it.

And of course, they’re right, but num­bers mat­ter too. Please come and join the camp for as long as you can – even if just for a day, it will be great­ly appre­ci­at­ed. The vibe on the camp is good, with defence-build­ing and bar­ri­cad­ing hap­pen­ing all over the place with plen­ty of oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple to get involved and lend a hand. See here for details of how to get the the camp.

The hear­ing for the evic­tion order of the Black Wood Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp will take place on Thurs­day 1st April at Dun­fermline Sher­iff Court at 14:00. Come down and show your sup­port for the occu­pa­tion if you can.

Final­ly, UK Coal have claimed that the occu­piers of Black Wood have caused fire dam­age to the site, dis­rupt­ed a Great Crest­ed Newt habi­tat and closed access to a foot­path. The Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp finds it iron­ic that a com­pa­ny about to pro­vide fuel to a coal-fired pow­er sta­tion, fan­ning the flames of cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change, caus­ing the forced migra­tion of a pro­tect­ed Newt species and trash­ing their habi­tat on site, and per­ma­nent­ly remov­ing a right of way for the dura­tion of the mine should accuse the camp of these things. The camp sug­gests that hypocrisy and deceit will get UK Coal nowhere.

Black Wood Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp
coalactionscotland@riseup.net
http://blackwood.noflag.org.uk/