Happy Valley update, New Zealand

SE dis­man­tle Hap­py Camp — so we’re relo­cat­ing to SE front lawn
The Hap­py Val­ley Occu­pa­tion camp has been dis­man­tled by Sol­id Ener­gy and heli­coptered out of the Val­ley. So we’re re-locat­ing — to Sol­id Ener­gy’s Front lawn!

Media Advi­so­ry
Save Hap­py Val­ley Coali­tion
7.00am Fri­day 24 April

Pro­test­ers sleep on coal com­pa­ny lawn

SE dis­man­tle Hap­py Camp — so we’re relo­cat­ing to SE front lawn
The Hap­py Val­ley Occu­pa­tion camp has been dis­man­tled by Sol­id Ener­gy and heli­coptered out of the Val­ley. So we’re re-locat­ing — to Sol­id Ener­gy’s Front lawn!

Media Advi­so­ry
Save Hap­py Val­ley Coali­tion
7.00am Fri­day 24 April

Pro­test­ers sleep on coal com­pa­ny lawn

Five Save Hap­py Val­ley Coali­tion mem­bers camped on the front lawn of state-owned coal min­er Sol­id Ener­gy’s Christchurch head­quar­ters last night. Around 30 pro­test­ers helped set up a pup tent on the lawn at 2.00pm yes­ter­day, as a response to the removal of a long-term occu­pa­tion camp on the site of a pro­posed West Coast coal mine.

“It cer­tain­ly was­n’t as peace­ful as a night in Hap­py Val­ley,” says Front Lawn Pro­test­er Anna-Clair Hunter. “We heard cars and trucks instead of weka and kiwi.”

Media are invit­ed to a com­mu­ni­ty break­fast at the Front Lawn site from 7.30–8.30am on Fri­day morn­ing.

The group has spent the past five years protest­ing the plans of the state-owned com­pa­ny to destroy a pris­tine area north of West­port, home to 13 endan­gered species includ­ing /roroa/, great spot­ted kiwi.

ENDS

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7.5.09
Sol­i­dar­i­ty for Hap­py Val­ley in Tau­ran­ga
Ban­ner Hung to High­light Cli­mate Crimes

Sol­id Ener­gy and Gen­e­sis con­tin­ue to prof­it from coal min­ing in New Zealand despite their “mil­lion dol­lar” green­wash mar­ket­ing cam­paigns.

Hap­py Val­ley is a pris­tene native wet­land near West­port, on the west coast of the South Island. Sol­id Ener­gy plan to extend their already mas­sive open-cast coal mine at Stock­ton into Hap­py Val­ley.

Two years ago a group of peo­ple con­cerned about cli­mate change and the native ecosys­tems set up an occu­pa­tion camp to pro­tect Hap­py Val­ley. On the 21st April this year the camp was forcibly removed by Sol­id Ener­gy.

Tau­ran­ga port is a key loca­tion for the traf­fick­ing of coal in and out of New Zealand by Sol­id Ener­gy and Gen­e­sis. This ban­ner was hung on a mega bill­board (bear­ing a poignant mes­sage!) along a major road and rail­way used for trans­port­ing coal, in order to high­light the con­tin­ued cli­mate crimes com­mit­ted by Sol­id Ener­gy and Gen­e­sis in this time of glob­al and eco­log­i­cal emer­gency.

http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz