The ongoing battle over open cast coal in the Douglas Valley has had a shocking development, with South Lanarkshire Council 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.

This latest dispute, where South Lanarkshire Council, (under the auspices of Archie Strang, council Chief Executive), are taking primary school teachers and pensioners to court in an effort to silence their dissenting voices, comes because of a logo reading “South Lanarkshire COALcil” and an article titled “South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Coal Hand-in-Hand at Community LIE-aison Meeting”. The logo superimposes the Council’s logo with that of Scottish Coal, and the article was a repost, linked from the Coal Action Scotland website.

The article described a liaison meeting between the community, Scottish Coal and South Lanarkshire Council. At this meeting, the council made every effort to exclude the community from it, misrepresented what was said in minutes and council workers were indistinguishable from Scottish Coal representatives.

Coal Action Scotland are demanding that South Lanarkshire Council end all legal proceedings immediately and issue an apology to the Community Council.

Fiona Reed from Coal Action Scotland said today: “It is unbelievable that the Council would take legal action over what is essentially a link, and not even contact the original authors of the article. This is nothing more than an attempt to limit the Community Council’s freedom of speech. The community has to put up with ill health, environmental and economic degradation from open casting, and now the politically-motivated bullying of this deceitful council.”

Coal Action Scotland are also asking people to stand in solidarity with the Community Council and post up the controversial logo and article on their websites and blogs.

Scottish Coal have submitted plans to the pre-application phase of the planning process to Fife Council, stating their intentions to mine an additional 3.4million tonnes of coal from the St. Ninians site near Kelty. This huge Southern Extension is an entire open cast mine in its own right, and one of the biggest to be applied for in Scotland for some time. It also covers the entire area – 170ha -  of Loch Fitty. The mine will be operational over 6 years with a 12-18 month restoration period after that, or more likely further extensions.

Continue reading ‘Major 3.4 million tonne Extension to St. Ninians Open Cast in Fife Proposed’

Yesterday around 185 people gathered in Cousland, Midlothian, to show their united opposition to Scottish Coal’s plans to mine 2 million tonnes of coal from the 154-hectare site at Airfield Farm – the size of Edinburgh’s old and new towns combined – just 500 metres from the village. Many villagers and their families came to the Village Hall and were met by 20 cyclists who cycled from Climate Camp in Gogar and a further 60 from the Climate Camp and beyond who came to show their support for the campaign.

Continue reading ‘People Unite in Opposition to Scottish Coal’s Open Cast Plans in Midlothian’

Growing Resistance is an event organised by Coal Action Scotland, in solidarity with Communities Against Airfield Open Cast, taking place during the Camp For Climate Action, which this year is in Edinburgh.

For two years the community surrounding Airfield Farm have been objecting to Scottish Coals plans to open cast the area in order to remove two million tons of coal. In an independent survey 95% of local residents object to the planned mine. Despite this, Scottish Coal is pushing ahead with the plans, and the very real fear is that Midlothian Council will give them the go ahead. To show the local people that they are not alone in this struggle we are asking people to join us on Saturday the 21st on the threatened land.

Continue reading ‘Growing Resistance – trip to Cousland’

SNP councillor Bill Walker has leaked news that the Blair Farm opencast mine in Fife, has been bought by the Scottish Resource Group (SRG) from the heavily indebted UK Coal. Despite SRGs refusal to comment on the purchase Mr Walker seemed adement the deal has gone ahead stating he is now confident that the company will “take positive steps to get on with the project”. Continue reading ‘Scottish Coal Rumoured to Have Bought Blair Farm Opencast in Fife’

Fife Council has paid out a record £175,000 to the UK’s third largest mining company, after it rejected the application for Muir Dean open cast site near Crossgates in 2006, a decision later overturned by Scottish Ministers. Meanwhile, ATH has been fined £10,000 in Ayrshire for illegally building a road on one of Scotland’s most protected environments, and £40,000 in Dumfries and Galloway for pouring sludge into the River Nith.

Continue reading ‘Fife Council pays ATH Resources £175,000 for daring to reject mine application’

The Scottish Resources Group (SRG) has delayed its bid for floatation on the London Stock Exchange because of what it was referred to as “a challenging market”.Previous reports suggested that the two majority share holders of the company; Parkburn Capital plc (71%) and Palmaris Capital (16%) were intending to sell their stakes in the £250 million company in a deal brokered by Panmure Gorden & Co. According to the SRG CEO, Don Nicholson, both companies are thought to be intending the process to recommence after the summer but a SRG spokesperson has subsequently suggested that there is no certainty that the floatation will occur at all. Continue reading ‘Scottish Coal Delays Floatation’

For the first time in Scotland, a major mining company has been fined for flouting environmental law. ATH Resources, the UK’s 3rd largest mining company producing 2 million tonnes a year from 5 open cast sites in East Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Fife has come under fire for imposing unwanted mines on communities, and now for building on a protected peatland which is part of the Muirkirk Uplands, a vast moorland site awarded special scientific significance in 2001.

Continue reading ‘ATH Resources fined for destroying one of Scotland’s most important nature reserves’

Scottish Coal and UK Coal are finalising plans for the sale of Blair Farm OCCS in Fife, with Scottish Coal using its expected £25 million cash generated from its flotation on the stock market to buy the mine off rivals/partners in crime UK Coal. UK Coal are selling the site near Oakley to lower their huge debt and boost profits while Scottish Coal, on the other hand, will increase their number of active mines to 10 in Scotland.

There has been no community consultation over this deal.

Scotsman article

Coal Action Scotland have been working with community groups opposing coal developments in their areas. Now is the time to show your solidarity with these communities and stop new coal projects in Scotland at the planning stage.

Continue reading ‘Do you want to do something easy today to help stop new coal in Scotland?’