It’s time to Spring back into Action.

Campaigners against the Huntington Lane open cast coal mine took their No New Coal message  http://bit.ly/aeRn94 on a flying tour of nearby Telford on Saturday 6th March, they discovered the following day however that many of the trees had already been felled signaling that work was due to begin imminently.  http://wmclimateaction.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/defending-the-shropshire-hills-from-uk-coal/

In response to this West Midlands Climate Action and a coalition of local groups, anarchists and activists last week swooped upon the Huntington Lane Surface Mine Site to claim the land. We’ve had a small camp set up on the proposed open-cast site for about a week now. There’s a communal sleeping area, fire pit, a wood store and plans for a lodge.

As part of Fossil Fools day West Midlands Climate Action are putting on a weekend gathering at the newly established Huntington Lane Camp. The weekend will include a ramble over the proposed Surface Mine Site, Banner drops, campaign planning and most importantly carrying out any work on site that needs doing to help establish a permanent base on site.

We need as many people as possible, if you can come for the whole weekend that would be great, but even if it’s just for the day any help we can get will be greatly appreciated.

On Wednesday 17th March representatives from UK Coal visited the camp to find out what our ‘list of demands’ where and didn’t seem pleased with the response. That we wanted them to call a halt to all open cast coal mining on the site!

There is now a call out  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/03/447715.html
for people to support the camp as more people are urgently needed so please do stop by the site if you get a chance, everyone is welcome whether you can spare an hour, a day or more – it all helps! There’s plenty of space to pitch your tent and sleeping space is available for a few people if you are tent-less.


We have a wish list of things we need:

Food (and teabags please)
Tarps – the bigger the better!
Tools of all kinds
Rope of all kinds
Fire bricks (for the sweat lodge!)
Stove pipe etc for a rocket stove
Compost toilets
Tripods
People

And anything else you think we might need that is not on the list.

Ideally we need as many people on site as possible as soon as possible, before fossil fools day, so if you can’t make the weekend or want to get there early any support will be welcomed by the camp.

The nearest train station is Wellington which is just outside of Telford and the camp is a 20 minute walk from the station.

The 230 acre site near the foot of The Wrekin encompasses both open ground and woodland, eats into the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is also home to the protected scheduled New Works Ancient Monument. If the mine goes ahead it will be responsible for a minimum of 2,430,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. The development also involves the disturbance of four badger setts and the foraging territories of a further two badger clans.

Directions and public transport links to camp found here  http://defendhuntingtonlane.wordpress.com/public-transport-links/


On the newswire:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/03/447715.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2010/03/447178.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/03/447076.html?c=on#c244152

Links:
 http://wmclimateaction.wordpress.com/
 http://twitter.com/wmclimateaction
 http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/
 http://risingtide.org.uk/
 http://www.fossilfoolsdayofaction.org/2010/
 http://defendhuntingtonlane.wordpress.com/