From Climate Camp to Cousland
Coal Action Scotland are expecting a large number of protesters to march this Saturday (21st August) against a bid by Scottish Coal to extract two million tonnes of coal from a 154-hectare open cast mine at Airfield Farm, Midlothian, just west of the popular East Lothian village of Ormiston. Activists will be cycling from Climate Camp to Cousland to take part in the event.
Local families, businesses and other supporters of the rural economy and environment are expected to join protesters from the Climate Camp in Edinburgh in a march from the village hall in Cousland, a village in the shadow of the proposed mine, to the site of the proposed development. In true rural style participants on the march have been invited to walk, cycle, horse ride or dog walk along the route.
Dougie McKenzie, chair of the campaigning group, Communities Against Airfield Open Cast (CAAOC), said, “We are delighted that Coal Action Scotland is supporting our campaign.
Local people have real concerns not only about the impact this mine will have on local businesses, but also on our safety, particularly that of our children – the area surrounding the village of Cousland is riddled with old limestone mine workings, and we have serious concerns about the impact blasting will have on the already unstable ground. Already this year we believe there have been 2 land collapses into old mine workings in the fields around Airfield, and a few years previously a 15-year old boy narrowly escaped death when the ground in the local playing field collapsed beneath him .”
“We hope this rural protest march will raise awareness of our campaign and will encourage more people to object to Scottish Coal’s application. We suspect that there will be many people in Edinburgh unaware of this proposed blot on the beautiful landscape so close to the city.”
Fiona Reed from Coal Action Scotland said: “We’re really looking forward to supporting CAAOC in their efforts against Scottish Coal and in persuading Midlothian Council to reject this mine. Communities across Scotland are blighted by open cast and the current push to dig ever increasing amounts of coal from the central belt is hurting communities and making a mockery of efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We will not allow people’s health and the environment to be sacrificed for the quick profits of mining companies.”
Event schedule for Saturday 21st August
- 2.00pm to 2.30pm cycle caravan leaves Climate Camp
- 3.00pm to 4.00pm cyclists/walkers meet at Cousland Village Hall
- 4.00pm – presentation by Dougie McKenzie, Chair CAAOC
- 4.10pm – walk commences from Hall through village to Airfield and proposed site of mine
- 4.30pm – group photo opportunity (at a point on the hill overlooking Airfield Farm (4.30pm). (this will be along a farm track)
“the popular East Lothian village of Ormiston”
Have you ever been to Ormiston or other similar East Lothian beauty spots like Macmerry and Tranent? Clearly not – whilst a few nimbys who are disappointed that their view of old bings and power lines may be disturbed, reducing the resale value of their Wimp-Bar-Bellway 2 up 2 down might be enraged, I’m sure that more folk would welcome a bit of inward investment, even if it’s only for a few years.
Edinburger on August 19, 2010
I live near this village and frankly with the exception of one pretty main street it is a hole. The area has a long long istory of mining and the old coal railway tracks form part of the amenity of the area and are interspersed with loads of info about local recollections of this vital local industry. As for old mines collapsing etc that will happen irrespective of any new mining and if you did any research you would know that over the last ten years one open cast mine nearby has been successfully reinstated and you interfering busiebodys wouldn’t and clearly don’t know it was there. Why don;t you sod off back to wherever you came from and get a job and do somehting useful to make the world a better place by being successful and effective instead of a bunch of whinging self righteous soap dodging sanctimonious soapdodgers.
Mark on August 19, 2010
Im must admit, whilst I appreciate your concern for the environment, the tactics you employ are somewhat misguided, cast your mind back to the last time you tried to stop an opencast mine, whatever possessed you lot to cover machines with human excrement?? Hardly the voices of reason are you?.
What heats your home? How do you cook your food?
Do you use electricity? All these forms of energy require some amount of fossil fuels.. Why not try to storm Cockenzie power station?? They burn lots of coal, How far do you think you would get before you were arrested?
You people need to grow up and not act like spoiled brats who don’t get their own way.
Maybe then you would have a real chance of persuading the taxpaying public to support your cause. Until then you are nothing but an embarassment to the uk.
James on August 19, 2010
And you might like to consider that the only currently viable alternative to supply the worlds energy needs is nuclear power. If we went nuclear we could have everything running on electricity. Bet you lot would love that.
The other option is tidal but I can just imagine the uproar you would make if we started damming estuarys and damaging the ecosystem.
And as for all the people in the third world dying in floods etc, (which is awful) you may be amazed to know that has been going on for as long as anyone can remember (and certainly since before you were born) and is largely due to them living in areas of land completely unsuited to permanent human habitation.
Any energy generation produces waste product. End of. The question is how you deal with it. We don’t need to stop using carbon based fuels, we need to start extracting the waste CO2 from the atmosphere. Scientific advances (financed I might add by all the global corporations you seem to hate) are close to making this a reality.
I have a dgree in environmental science on August 20, 2010
u middle class tory scum we will travel any where any place any time DIRECT ACTION ALL THE WAY FCK THE POLICE STATE.
kiss my hippy ass on August 20, 2010
That comment says it all, you don’t care about the environment, you just want to protest. It doesn’t matter what about as long as you get to shout and chant and abuse the Police. Funny that whenever something happens to you lot thats the people you call upon (after mummy and daddy to score some funds that is!).
And as you travel anywhere, any place, any time, heres a suggestion.. Go to hell.
James on August 20, 2010
You are aware that RBS is the biggest global financer other than Govts of green eneregy!!!!!
Anonymous on August 20, 2010
The comment above made by ‘kiss my hippy ass’ is clearly not the view of all protesters (some of which I happen to know have jobs and wash daily). In fact, I doubt that comment was even posted by someone involved with climate camp, more likely by someone trying to further muddy the environmental protester stereotype.
Whilst I don’t neccessarily agree with some of the methods used in direct action, at least these people are doing something to try to improve the lives of future generations, or at least to put public pressure on those with the power and/or money to do something. Personally, I would view RBS in a much better light if they removed all investment (the majority of which is public investment anyway…) from fossil fuels and ploughed it all into tidal or geothermal. (but surely there are much smaller short-term gains in that!)
Of course we need energy to heat our homes and cook etc, but we all know that burning coal is an unsustainable source of energy, is dirty and really damages the natural environment, which is especially true of open cast mines. This should not be a concern just for environmentalists – but for anyone who breathes air. As for inward investment – what good is investment if in x number of years the land is uninhabitable? Or if many of the local population suffer respiratory problems as a result of the investment?
Climate camp sympathiser on August 20, 2010
unbelievable, what a waste of time ! everyone knows the problems of burning coal and we dont need taxpayers money wasted on policing yet another pointless protest to point out the blindingly obvious. the people who may a difference in this world are the people who actually do something positive about solving problems and improving the quality of life for everyone, enginers, farmers, profesional people who actually think problems through and sovle them. Its the simplist job going to sit and point out the problem and your time might be better spent trying to find solutions ? just a thought for you while your anoying everyone on Saturday, oh and while your trying to find the solution you might spare a thought for the fact that we still need to turn on the lights and heat our homes in the meantime.
jules on August 20, 2010
Some things might be blindingly obvious to some people. They are definitely not blindingly obvious to all. Sometimes things are so obviously nonsensical that many people simply have no idea that others consider and undertake those nonsensical actions.
Many people never consider where the energy comes from to power their light-bulbs, let alone the effects of its extraction and combustion.
Thank you to everyone choosing to spend their own time, energy and money enlightening others. Thank you to those who came along to support the communities of Cousland and Ormiston, to the benefit of everyone and everything on the planet.
angus on August 22, 2010
“Thank you to those who came along to support the communities of Cousland and Ormiston”
Did you poll every single resident of these two blots on the landscape or did you just presume that a few shrill nimbys who were aligned with your narrow viewpoint actually represented the opinion of the locals?
Anonymous on August 22, 2010
Did you poll every single resident of these two blots on the landscape?”
Actually we did: a secret ballot conducted and votes counted independently and impartially. 95% of residents returned their voting papers. 94% voted against this appalling development. One villager will be living 190 metres from this mine. Maybe a little research and reflection before shooting from the hip would be welcome. But this is unlikely from those whose default position on any issue seems to be online abuse.
M ichael on August 22, 2010
I call complete and utter bullshit on this. Show your working – what were they asked? Where are the results? Just because you’re saying it, doesn’t make it any less cockshite.
A little prior research and reflection into the difference between the truth and lies before shooting from the hip with made up statistics would be welcome.
But then what can we expect from a group who claim they are using peaceful protest, while simultaneously creating havoc on the roads of Scotland and inconveniencing the locals with your “oily substances”? I wonder how many of the 94% who “agreed with you” were aware of the actions you’d take before they cast their vote?
I’m talking hypothetically of course – we all know 95% of people didn’t reply to your “secret survey”, and the ones that did were given loaded questions – as it usually the case with surveys that are taken to prove a point that you’ve already decided is true.
Seriously? on August 23, 2010
The surveys were conducted in both Ormiston and Cousland communities and the surrounding rural properties ,conducted by the local Community Councils completely independently and counted and ratified by the local Church minister. 95% of residents DID reply of their own free will.
This was carried out quite some time ago – before the date for responses to the first Scottish Coal submission – and has absolutely nothing to do with the Climate Camp organisation.
The objections to Airfield Farm Open Cast are to do with people, ordinary citizens of Mid and East Lothian, who are trying to carry on their lives and businesses in an area where they have lived, brought up their families and worked for years.
This survey was not ‘secret’ for any suspicious reason, it just allowed people to express their own opinions on a ballot paper and return them in a sealed nevelope to be opened by an unbiased counter.
Michael is right – try to find the facts out before making judgements – it’s not rocket science, anyone can get onto Midlothian Planning website, and download and take hours of their own time to read and digest the thousands of pages of submissions from Scottish Coal, which the residents of these areas have had to do over the past 18 months so that we can make a considered judgement on the proposals. I suggest you take the time to do this.
Yes Seriously? We ARE taking this seriously..
and mean to carry on opposing this plan until we win and have our lives restored to us.
And we don’t need to use offensive language to get our point across.
Cousland resident on August 23, 2010
thanks guy for turning up on saturday it was great for the comunities
moray (son with ladybug) on August 23, 2010
In reply to “kiss my hippy ass”, this is the first time I have heard supporters of the coal industry in this country referred to as ‘middle class tory scum’!!!
You must either be ignorant, stupid or I suspect both.
Anonymous on August 24, 2010
Hats off to all the courageous protesters doing their best to bring the issues to light of catastrophic climate change being caused by a catastrophic banking system.
And shame on all those on this thread who have heaped abuse on them. I can only assume you are ignorant. Not a single abusive comment even bothers dispute the facts of climate change, the fossil fuel causes or the banks’ roll in driving it. They lazily say “we need to keep the lights on and homes warm”. We need to stop the ice caps melting and the seas from turning acid. We need to stop half the habitable land in Bangladesh being turne to salty mush. It’s too late for some of the small island states, they are already going under. Their migrants need to be accommodated. Insulate your house as best you can, put some jumpers on and get a green tariff, it is not difficult.
NickB on August 26, 2010