The Save Happy Valley Campaign has taken the fight against Solid Energy to a new level. In a carefully planned protest, three activists ‘locked on’ to train tracks at about 11.50am today preventing Solid Energy’s coal trains reaching Lyttelton port [first press release]. Two were locked onto the track directly and a third was hanging from a tree 30m up with his support rope connected to the track.
Three trains were forced to stop and police quickly turned up [second press release]. Those locked-on refused to move and police were forced to dig up the concrete that been laid to remove the two directly connected. The third in the tree took longer for the police to get down. In all, the protesters held up the coal trains for just under 4 hours.
All three have been arrested and charges of trespass, wilful damage and trespass under the Railways Act. They have vowed to fight the charges and as well as Solid Energy’s intimidation tactics, who plan to sue them for two hundred thousand dollars [third press release].They will be staging a protest at their first court appearance this Thursday, 9.00am at the District Court in Christchurch.
Solid Energy has been pushing very aggressively to destroy Happy Valley, a beautiful area of native bush, fragile wetlands and a thriving ecosystem of native birds and animals located on the West Coast of New Zealand, with an open-cast coal mine and have just recently cleared the necessary legal hurdles. The mine will not only destroy the valley and the surrounding area, but further add to climate change which is expected to have devastating global consequences if left to continue unabated.
Check out www.savehappyvalley.org.nz for more information about Solid Energy’s plans and the campaign against them.