Category: Scotland (Central & Southern)

May 23rd, 2011
After eight months of occu­pa­tion and strug­gle, Coal Action Scot­land has decid­ed to bring an end to the Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp. The camp was tak­en in Sep­tem­ber last year to resist Scot­tish Coal’s plans to open-cast the wood­land, and to act as a base in South Lanark­shire to take direct action and work with affect­ed com­mu­ni­ties in the ongo­ing strug­gle against the coal indus­try. Hav­ing felt that those goals were met as much as they were going to be, and with Scot­tish Coal’s appli­ca­tion being sub­mit­ted for a new 4 mil­lion ton open cast at Glen­tag­gart East, we have decid­ed to change our focus. We are in no way aban­don­ing South Lanark­shire, or the strug­gle against Scot­tish Coal, and will con­tin­ue to be active in the area in new and excit­ing ways.

Sur­round­ed by three active open cast coal sites, and mul­ti­ple scars being “restored”, the res­i­dents of THWAC placed them­selves along­side the peo­ple of the Dou­glas Val­ley, right in the bel­ly of the beast. Mak­ing the threat of new coal exploita­tion and the con­stant noise and dis­rup­tion a part of every­day life for our­selves is one way in which we felt we could show sol­i­dar­i­ty. We were able to build on links forged dur­ing Main­shill, and met many more peo­ple cam­paign­ing and work­ing to halt Scot­tish Coal’s march across the Dou­glas Val­ley.

Dur­ing our time at Hap­pen­don Wood we tried to impact as lit­tle as pos­si­ble on the envi­ron­ment we were stay­ing in. This includ­ed using solar pan­els to charge the bat­ter­ies to pow­er the lap­tops and the lights in the com­mu­nal and office, donat­ing our shit to a local hous­ing coop who will com­post it and use it to grow food in their orchards, grey water sys­tems to fil­ter our waste water and using paths to reduce the soil ero­sion. Great effort was tak­en to return the small area of wood­land we inhab­it­ed to its orig­i­nal state as we left, and we left the land bet­ter than how we found it. More than Scot­tish Coal can say.

The camp became a use­ful hub in the com­mu­ni­ty for shar­ing infor­ma­tion and ideas. Pub­lic meet­ings were organ­ised and links between the many com­mu­ni­ties were forged. Dur­ing our time at Hap­pen­don Scot­tish Coal launched their “For­ward Strat­e­gy.” Their land grab of the Dou­glas Val­ley involved three new open cast coal sites, with plans to remove a total of 5.4 mil­lion tonnes of coal, fly­ing in the face of local oppo­si­tion and glob­al opin­ion on cli­mate change. This cat­a­lyst ignit­ed a local cam­paign with oppo­si­tion reach­ing from Gle­spin to Les­ma­hagow and a series of pub­lic meet­ings, kick start­ed by peo­ple from THWAC. Peo­ple from all over the Dou­glas Val­ley have con­tin­ued their gen­eros­i­ty with food, water, build­ing mate­ri­als and lock-on cement. We would like to say a mas­sive thank you to the all the peo­ple who came down and pro­vid­ed vital prac­ti­cal and moral sup­port in a win­ter cold enough to rival last year’s at Main­shill.

Dur­ing the occu­pa­tion of Hap­pen­don Wood, Coal Action Scot­land con­tin­ued cam­paign­ing against coal expan­sion in Scot­land. The Health Study Group and Com­mu­ni­ty Ecol­o­gy Group car­ried out vital research into the neg­a­tive effects of the coal indus­try. Eco­log­i­cal stud­ies have been car­ried out at prospec­tive coal sites in the Dou­glas Val­ley, dis­cov­er­ing pro­tect­ed species which were some­how over­looked by Scot­tish Coal’s paid for eco­log­i­cal sur­veys. More and more research has been con­duct­ed show­ing the links between coal extrac­tion and res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases, regard­less of Scot­tish Coal or South Lanark­shire Council’s refusal to lis­ten. CAS also con­tin­ued to sup­port the cam­paign in Mid­loth­i­an against an open cast by Scot­tish Coal near the vil­lage of Cous­land, and we thank the local cam­paign­ers for their sup­port in return. The com­mu­ni­ty man­aged to defeat the pro­pos­al at the plan­ning stage.

A Smooth Newt found dur­ing tat down.

As the name sug­gests, THWAC was start­ed as a base for direct action. Dur­ing the eight months affin­i­ty groups from across the UK, and fur­ther afield, came and car­ried out a wide vari­ety of direct action and protests at open casts in the area and tar­gets fur­ther afield. This includ­ed: mine gates locked shut at night three times, dig­ger div­ing at Main­shill twice, Main­shill offices were attacked with paint, Raven­struther coal rail head was block­ad­ed twice, South Lanark­shire Council’s offices had ban­ners hung from the roof and stink bombs let off inside the com­mit­tee room, Scot­tish Coal con­trac­tors RPS and Weber Shand­wick had their offices glued shut and slo­gans paint­ed on their walls, and accord­ing to anony­mous reports post­ed online there were six sab­o­tage actions with over thir­ty three vehi­cles inca­pac­i­tat­ed. These add to the already impres­sive list of actions tak­en against the coal indus­try since Coal Action Scot­land formed. Through this cam­paign of sus­tained direct action we have cost Scot­tish Coal a con­sid­er­able amount.

Over the next few months we will be set­ting our sites on Scot­tish Coal’s plot to tear up Glen­tag­gart East in the Dou­glas Val­ley. We are join­ing with local cam­paign­ers in a call out for as many objec­tion let­ters to South Lanark­shire Coun­cil against this appli­ca­tion as pos­si­ble. More infor­ma­tion about this can be found on the STOP web­site. We will also con­tin­ue to use direct action to apply pres­sure on them to aban­don this open cast. If any­one wish­es to join in then Tar­get Brochures show­ing coal infra­struc­ture across Scot­land can also be found on our web­site. After the suc­cess of last year’s event we will be plan­ning anoth­er Out­door Skill Share from the 26th to the 29th of August, where we will run work­shops on the prac­ti­cal skills need­ed to hold a protest site. More infor­ma­tion can be found on the Out­door Skill Share web­site.

All that’s left is to say thank you to all our vis­i­tors and see you all next time.

The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp

30th Octo­ber 2011
Hel­lo all,

Here’s a brief update of what’s been going on with Coal Action Scot­land and what’s com­ing up. There’s a week to go before the Autumn Gath­er­ing and lots has been hap­pen­ing!

1. New THWAC! short film
2. THWAC Gath­er­ing 6th-10th Novem­ber
3. Coal Action Scot­land Octo­ber Newslet­ter
4. Action Roundup
5. Recent News

*1. New THWAC! short film*

A short film about the Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp and fight­ing Scot­tish Coal in the Dou­glas Val­ley, and pub­li­cis­ing the gath­er­ing next week can be watched here: http://politube.org/show/3075 and http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2206

*2. THWAC Gath­er­ing 6th-10th Novem­ber*

The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp (THWAC) was occu­pied on 12th Sep­tem­ber 2010 to resist the destruc­tion of the Dou­glas Val­ley by Scot­tish Coal and SRG Estates.

Join us for our five day autumn gath­er­ing in the woods!

As part of what they’re call­ing their “for­ward strat­e­gy”, Scot­tish Coal have begun the process of clos­ing the cir­cle of open cast mines around the com­mu­ni­ties of the Dou­glas Val­ley by announc­ing three new open cast appli­ca­tions.

For too long now Scot­tish Coal, (with the help of rich landown­ers and cor­rupt coun­cil­lors) have been shit­ting all over the Dou­glas Val­ley, caus­ing ill health to the local com­mu­ni­ties in the area and con­tribut­ing to cli­mate change. This has got to stop.

The evic­tion at Main­shill was not an end but just a begin­ning. We’re back to fin­ish what we start­ed. If Scot­tish Coal want to oblit­er­ate what’s left of the Scot­tish coun­try­side, we will oblit­er­ate them.

We’re call­ing for affin­i­ty groups to come to the site with ener­gy and ideas for action to destroy Scot­tish Coal’s plans.

There will also be the usu­al skill­shar­ing, includ­ing action work­shops, infor­ma­tion-shar­ing and oppor­tu­ni­ties to get involved in the cam­paign and day-to-day life on camp.

**WHAT TO BRING:**

* warm clothes, boots and water­proofs, a tent, sleep­ing bag and mat
* tools for build­ing work and action mate­ri­als if you can
* Most impor­tant­ly bring your­self and friends.

FOOD:
There’ll be com­mu­nal veg­an food for a dona­tion, so come pre­pared to help with chop­ping veg.

GETTING THERE:
>The camp is near junc­tion 12 of the M74, which runs from Carlisle to Glas­gow. The near­est train sta­tions are Lanark and Hamil­ton and there are fre­quent direct bus­es to near the site. Email us or call the sit phone if you need a lift from the train sta­tion.

MORE INFO AND CONTACT:
Email: con­tact [at] coalactionscotland.org.uk
Site phone: 07806926040
Post: Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp
Wolfcrooks Road
South Lanark­shire
ML11 9PA

Check out the brochure of coal tar­gets in Scot­land plus Dig­ger Div­ing for Begin­ners here http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?page_id=10>.

If you would like to do an info night in your area to pub­li­cise the camp and the gath­er­ing, get in touch and we’ll
send you our new film and action resources.

*3. Octo­ber Newslet­ter*

Down­load and dis­trib­ute the Coal Action Scot­land Octo­ber Newslet­ter!
Find it here:

front three pages:
http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-first-three-pages.pdf

back page:
http://coalaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Oct-10-back-page.pdf

*4. Action Round-up*

Bore­hole Drilling Machine sab­o­taged in sol­i­dar­i­ty with The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2202>

Action against RPS group Glas­gow in Sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties in Co. Mayo and South Lanark­shire http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2185>

“Nae Coal at Hunter­ston”: Action against Ayr­shire Pow­er and Peel
Hold­ings http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2177>

CON­sul­ta­tions by Scot­tish Coal marked by actions against the mines in Dou­glas Val­ley http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2166>

Begin­nings of a new wave of direct action in the Dou­glas Val­ley against Scot­tish Coal http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2160>

*5. Recent News*

Dead­ly Coal Tour Vis­its THWAC http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2197>

Scot­tish Coal giv­en a slap on the wrist for envi­ron­men­tal dam­age in Ayr­shire http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=2189>

Vic­to­ry against Scot­tish Coal in Mid­loth­i­an!

Ear­ly evening on Sun­day 12th Sep­tem­ber a group of autonomous indi­vid­u­als suc­cess­ful­ly occu­pied a new site in Hap­pen­don Wood, South Lanark­shire!

Coal Action Scot­land are invit­ing peo­ple to join The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp (THWAC) to help defend the wood from destruc­tion by Scot­tish Coal, and to take action in sol­i­dar­i­ty with com­mu­ni­ties in the area resist­ing the expan­sion of the coal indus­try in the Dou­glas Val­ley.

You can find out more about the camp at http://happendon.coalactionscotland.org.uk — and more infor­ma­tion about why we’re at Hap­pen­don and what we’re doing there will be com­ing very soon.

In the mean­time, check our press advi­so­ry, for imme­di­ate release, below:

Con­tact:
Sam Mac­don­ald (Off-site Con­tact: Infor­ma­tion and Pho­tos) 07984706188
Jo Reed (On-site Con­tact: Vis­its and Inter­views) 07806926040
media@coalactionscotland.org.uk

Scot­tish Coal’s
Hap­pen­don Wood Occu­pied

Last night (12/9/10) a group of peo­ple occu­pied areas with­in Hap­pen­don Wood, South Lanark­shire (1) to defend it from destruc­tion by Scot­tish Coal, part of the Scot­tish Resources Group. They have begun to build shel­ters and defences on the site, with large ban­ners hung from trees at the front of the site that say: “Defend­ing the Dou­glas Val­ley” and “No Open­cast Here”. The Hap­pen­don Wood Action Camp has come out of a long-term strug­gle by the local com­mu­ni­ty and Coal Action Scot­land (2) to halt coal expan­sion in the Dou­glas Val­ley which is already one of the most heav­i­ly mined areas in Europe.

The Scot­tish Resources Group have applied for plan­ning per­mis­sion for a mixed use devel­op­ment (3) on this land (which is in an area of Great Land­scape Val­ue) in the Dou­glas Val­ley, but they intend to open­cast the area first. The South Lanark­shire min­er­als plan high­lights areas with­in the new devel­op­ment as hav­ing recov­er­able coal deposits that can be exca­vat­ed dur­ing the cur­rent local plan. Scot­tish Coal actu­al­ly wouldn’t be allowed to build on the land with­out open cast­ing it first, oth­er­wise this would be “ster­il­is­ing the nations asset” and there­fore ille­gal. (4)

Scot­tish Coal have not yet pub­licly declared their inter­ests in open­cast­ing Hap­pen­don Wood but many mem­bers of the local com­mu­ni­ty have expressed deep con­cerns that they will be blight­ed with yet anoth­er open­cast coal mine. In a recent meet­ing about the devel­op­ment, MSP for Clydes­dale Karen Gillon told local res­i­dents that she did not doubt that they would remove the coal, in spite of the fact that the area that SRG wish to devel­op takes in the open­cast work­ings at Poniel, which are cur­rent­ly due to be restored. Local res­i­dent and Dou­glas and Gle­spin Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil Chair­per­son Lind­say Addi­son is enraged by the behav­iour of Scot­tish Coal in South Lanark­shire:

“We have seri­ous con­cerns that this is an excuse for anoth­er open­cast. We do not want this devel­op­ment, let alone anoth­er mine. We will fight it all the way and sup­port the efforts of the wider com­mu­ni­ty in its oppo­si­tion to new coal in the Dou­glas Val­ley.”

SRG’s appli­ca­tion for plan­ning per­mis­sion for this devel­op­ment is ongo­ing; the deci­sion by the coun­cil will like­ly be made in the com­ing months. Ques­tions have been raised about the close rela­tion­ship between Scot­tish Coal and South Lanark­shire Coun­cil (SLC) result­ing in SLC issu­ing each mem­ber of the Dou­glas and Gle­spin Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil legal notices stat­ing that pro­ceed­ings against them are to begin at Lanark Sher­iff Court over alleged libel claims. This move is seen by the com­mu­ni­ty as an attack on their free­dom of speech. (5)

Notes to Edi­tors:

1. Loca­tion: In South Lanark­shire, about 30 miles south of Glas­gow, Hap­pen­don Wood is an area just off the B7078, sur­round­ing the Dew­ers ware­house site and Poniel Open­cast work­ings. To reach the site, dri­ving south along the B7078 from Les­ma­hagow (run­ning along­side the M74), take the first left after Hap­pen­don Ser­vices onto the C‑road; the site front is on your left after about half a mile. A map is avail­able at http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?page_id=1974#Where

2. Work­ing with and sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties across Scot­land, the Coal Action Scot­land col­lec­tive exists to chal­lenge the advance­ment of coal as an ener­gy source by inform­ing peo­ple about the dan­gers posed by new coal, pro­mot­ing alter­na­tives, work­ing with those involved, and direct­ly chal­leng­ing new coal exploita­tion from source to point of use. Main­shill Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp was set up just along the road from Hap­pen­don Woods last year where peo­ple stayed for over sev­en months, end­ing in a five day evic­tion and a total of 45 arrests. See: http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/

3. This appli­ca­tion is Poniel / Hap­pen­don Mixed Use Devel­op­ment appli­ca­tion from the Scot­tish Resources Group (Scot­tish Coal). It is for “Mixed use devel­op­ment com­pris­ing indus­tri­al and stor­age and dis­tri­b­u­tion ware­hous­ing, busi­ness units/office accom­mo­da­tion, hotel with con­fer­ence and com­mer­cial leisure facil­i­ties, retail/restaurant floor­space, land­scap­ing, open space and asso­ci­at­ed infra­struc­ture (plan­ning per­mis­sion in prin­ci­ple)”, but it is expect­ed that once they get per­mis­sion for this they will actu­al­ly be bound to open­cast the area for coal. The plan­ning ref­er­ence for the appli­ca­tion is: CL/10/0180.

4. The Coal Author­i­ty issue licences to coal com­pa­nies. The fol­low­ing was dis­cov­ered in cor­re­spon­dence between them and Scot­tish Coal:
‘Where devel­op­ment is pro­posed over areas of coal and past coal work­ings at shal­low depth, The Coal Author­i­ty is of the opin­ion that appli­cants should con­sid­er wher­ev­er pos­si­ble remov­ing the rem­nant shal­low coal. This will enable the land to be sta­bilised and treat­ed by a more sus­tain­able method; rather than by attempt­ing to grout fill any voids and con­se­quent­ly unnec­es­sar­i­ly ster­il­is­ing the nation’s asset.’

5. For arti­cles and quo­ta­tions on the legal threats to the Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil see:
http://www.lanarkgazette.co.uk/news/South-Lanarkshire-Council-copyright-threat.6526004.jp
http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=1966
http://www.jonathanmitchell.info/2010/09/02/whats-wrong-with-south-lanarkshire/