NORTHUMBERLANDIA SPEAKS OUT AGAINST COAL MINE

A con­tentious land sculp­ture was brought to life today as it joined grow­ing oppo­si­tion to a new open­cast coal mine.

A con­tentious land sculp­ture was brought to life today as it joined grow­ing oppo­si­tion to a new open­cast coal mine.

To mark the start of a pub­lic inquiry into the con­tro­ver­sial Druridge Bay coal mine, a group call­ing them­selves “Northum­ber­lan­dia Speaks” used the pow­er of art to give voice to Northum­ber­lan­dia, a pub­lic sculp­ture in rur­al Northum­ber­land. The struc­ture, also known as Slag Alice, was con­struct­ed by the Banks Group to com­pen­sate for the envi­ron­men­tal dam­age caused by the adjoin­ing Shot­ton Sur­face Mine.

The min­ing com­pa­ny’s plans to mine coal near local beau­ty spot Druridge Bay have attract­ed wide­spread oppo­si­tion, and today’s action vocalised that oppo­si­tion. Much of this oppo­si­tion has cen­tred around the Save Druridge cam­paign, who have fund­ed legal oppo­si­tion to the mine.

The cam­paign­ers used a ban­ner read­ing “end coal now” to sug­gest the views of the reclin­ing woman depict­ed in the sculp­ture. They also con­struct­ed an image of a wind tur­bine in her clenched right hand.

Rob Noyes, a spokesper­son for the group, explained:

“Northum­ber­lan­dia is sold as ‘a land­scape for the com­mu­ni­ty to enjoy’ and yet the Banks Group want to deprive the Druridge Bay com­mu­ni­ty of the land­scape they already enjoy. I’m sure that if the land­scape could, it would speak out. And it would say ‘End Coal Now’.”

As well as the dan­ger­ous envi­ron­men­tal impacts of a coal mine near Druridge Bay, cam­paign­ers and local res­i­dents are con­cerned about the threat to wildlife and the local tourism indus­try, which relies on Druridge Bay’s sta­tus as a nat­ur­al beau­ty spot.

Although the Banks Group claims the new mine could cre­ate 50 jobs, it is unclear what would hap­pen to these after the mine’s five-year lifes­pan, or whether this could com­pen­sate for the job loss­es that would result from a decline in tourism.

Jack Mar­ley, a local res­i­dent who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the protest, said:

“I did­n’t actu­al­ly even know there was a new coal mine planned until recent­ly. I don’t under­stand why any­one would want to open a new coal mine when it’s so obvi­ous­ly a declin­ing indus­try. The North East has had a great coal-min­ing past, but it’s not an indus­try that can bring the growth to our area that we need so much. It makes much more sense to cre­ate local jobs in the renew­able sec­tor.”

Noyes added: “A new mine at Druridge Bay will cre­ate less than 50 short term jobs and bring a dai­ly traf­fic of 300 HGV vehi­cles to a calm oasis. While we await the results of the inquiry, we can only reflect on what a beau­ti­ful place Northum­ber­land is, at sites like this. Any­one who comes to the area can see how a new mine would com­plete­ly destroy the bay, and why? So a dying indus­try can wreck our cli­mate.”

The inquiry starts tomor­row, and a final deci­sion will be reached in the autumn.