The eviction team arrived very early on Thursday 7^th August. The person sleeping in the tree house on the lane managed to raise the alarm before being arrested, giving those who wanted to time to get up onto the roof of the house. Three people left voluntarily when the bailiffs read out the final demand to go, and another two were removed from the roof and arrested later that day.

The next day saw the eviction team back again bright and early, and another four people were removed from their various lock-ons inside the house that afternoon. That left just two people deep in the tunnel under the house. For the following week the bailiffs worked on enlarging and shoring up the entrance shaft and then the horizontal tunnel leading off it; the two people ahead of them in the tunnel though, were also digging, and extending their tunnel faster than the bailiffs could follow.

 There was a bit of variety on the fourth day, Sunday, when some of the people who’d been at  Climate Camp tried to get home. Two were arrested on their way to the house at dawn, another two were spotted hiding in a tree and brought down and arrested later that morning. By the end of the day every tree and hedge within sight of the farmhouse had been uprooted, even those supposedly ‘protected’; UK Coal even had the gall to express their sorrow that ‘so called ecologists’ had forced them into it.

Back underground, the digging and shoring continued. Eventually the eviction team realised that if at the end of every shift they retired to their comfy hotel, and allowed the protesters to gain ground overnight, this could go on forever, so on the Thursday night they kept digging instead. They finally caught up with the two in the wee small hours of Friday morning, nearly nine days after the eviction first started. By lunch time the house had been flattened - there’s a really horrible video of it happening on the Derby Evening Telegraph website

All thirteen of the people arrested have been charged under Section 68 (1) and (3) of the Criminal Justice Act, for disrupting/obstructing someone engaged in a lawful act etc etc ie Aggravated Trespass. They are all due to appear in Derby Magistrates’ Court, on various dates right through August  - 3 on the 15^th, 3 on the 18^th, 4 on the 21^st, 2 on the 28^th and 1 on the 29^th. More news on the court proceedings as we have it.

Climate change is the biggest threat facing us, and burning coal is the biggest historical cause of clima

te change.  Every day more coal is burned, yet industry and government seem intent on burning even more. 

The Leave it in the Ground network and this website is a growing network of people & resources resisting coal in the UK.

The Meeting will be held at the Yard Theatre, 41 Old Birley Street, Hulme, Manchester M15 5RF, as an opportunity to meet others from across the UK fighting coal developments, share experiences and skills and, hopefully have some fun! Additionally, we hope to discuss: 

- how the network will operate in the future 

- strategy 

- what we have and what we need 

- how we communicate, internally and externally 

- ideas for action 

Info[at]leaveitintheground.org.uk 

0780 401 8214