As part of Fossil Fools Day West Midlands Climate Action decided to support the Huntington Lane Camp against one of the UKs biggest Fossil Fools; UK Coal, who want to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal at Huntington Lane over a three-year period. The main idea of the Fossil Fools weekend gathering was to get as many people as possible down to the camp over the four days to help with the ongoing construction of the camp. The 230-acre site near the foot of The Wrekin encompasses part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is also home to the protected scheduled New Works Ancient Monument. The Camp was set up three weeks ago in response to UK Coal felling trees which were part of ancient woodland so they can build a haul road to link the two parts of the site together.
A day before Fossil Fools Days saw the camp attacked during the night by three loud bangs, which it is thought came from someone either throwing fireworks or an air bomb into the camp. The camp which included young children were terrified after being woken up during the dead of night. One camper said
“It was terrifying, really terrifying. It was in the dead of night, deathly quiet, and then all of a sudden we heard these three thunderous bangs quickly one after the other.”
As a result of the attack a 24 hour watch has now been established at the camp
The weekend saw a steady stream of people visit the camp which has now grown to include two communal tipis and a third sheltered communal area is under construction which when finished will have raised flooring.
Friday the 2nd April saw two campaigners hang a banner from the famous Iron Bridge World Heritage Site landmark in view of thousands of Bank Holiday visitors.
“We are trying to raise awareness. We are still finding a large amount of people do not know proposals for a coal mine are in existence, let alone it being so close to an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
Overall the mood at the camp is positive but we still need as many people at the camp as possible and anything you can donate would be appreciated. We still need Food, Water, Tarp, Ropes, Straw/Sawdust/Woodchips to soak up the mud a little and Walkie Talkies
http://wmclimateaction.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/fossil-fools-weekend-roundup/