PLUGGING INTO THE MAINSHILL

The first instalment of the UK climate camp trilogy of low-impact living and high-impact direct action opened this week with the Scottish Camp For Climate Action. The Mainshill Solidarity Camp, on a planned open-cast coal site in Lanarkshire near Glasgow, is the venue – and though the camp goes from 3rd-10th August, the protest site will of course continue afterwards. This new woodland protest occupation was taken in mid-June after Scottish Coal were given permission to mine despite the opposition of the local district (See SchNEWS 681) and has since become a sustainable community. 

Some local residents live at the site, which contains tree houses and tunnels, whilst others have been campaigning against Scottish Coal’s applications to expand its coal-mining operations in the Douglas Valley for years. However, their objections to the trashing of their local environment have been consistently ignored by the authorities, and owner of the land - Lord Home - who is being investigated for a £150m money laundering fraud. Just three weeks ago they learned of another proposal for open-cast coal mining in the valley.

Drilling at Mainshill had been carried out by Welsh-based contractor Apex. Preparatory work for the mine by Apex such as tree-felling and bore sample drilling had already breached seven conditions of the planning approval, with regards to studies to ascertain the presence of certain endangered species such as badgers and bats, which the occupiers know to be present on site. Open-cast mines have been operational in the area for the last four years, and pulmonary illnesses have risen by 60% in the same time. 

Direct action is already underway though, with anonymous activists disabling a conveyor belt on Wednesday night (5th) at Scottish Coal’s Glentaggart site. This belt carries coal from the mine to Drax power station in Yorkshire (the site of the first Climate Camp 2006 – see SchNEWS 558).

Over 100 campers are already at the location expanding the camp and police presence has been low-key so far with cameras set up on the perimeters, although word was leaked last night of all police leave in the central section of Scotland suspended, with forces on high alert. So far, however, there has been none of the harassment of Kingsnorth last summer. In the next week there will be workshops, discussions and opportunities to link up with other people, groups and campaigns.

* See http://climatecampscotland.org.uk and http://coalactionedinburgh.noflag.org.uk

* When this camp finishes, it’s off to Pembrokeshire for the Welsh Camp For Climate Action, August 13th-16th – see http://climatecampcymru.org, then the London camp August 27th-Sept 2nd - see http://climatecamp.org.uk