Coal is finite, but we are relentless

Rich Felgate’s film FINITE: The Climate of Change, features the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley and the occupation of the Hambacher forest. It shows how, through relentless campaigning, direct action and creative protest, concerned people stopped destruction of the remaining Hambacher forest in the Rhineland, Germany. The forest was being consumed for RWE’s brown opencast coal mine. FINITE also follows opposition to the Banks Group’s opencast coal mine in the Pont Valley, Durham, UK. The Pont Valley Protection Camp started opposing the coal mine plans in early 2018.

FINITE is available to rent or buy online worldwide on Vimeo On Demand!

Numerous applications to extract coal from the Pont Valley via opencast coal methods were rejected for over 30 years by the local council, before UK Coal were given planning permission after a second planning appeal, in June 2015, although the company had gone bankrupt. Banks Group took over the license to extract coal for power stations in early 2018 and rushed to remove the first coal before the planning permission lapsed on the 3^rd June 2018.

Local people, some living just 300m from the site’s perimeter, alongside activists from across Europe, set up a protest camp in February 2018 during the ‘Beast from the East’ snow storm. This action was taken just after the coal company felled an ancient hedgerow that ran through the proposed site.

UK Coal’s ecologists had found protected great crested newts on the opencast site and had promised to relocate them, to ponds in the north of the site built for this purpose. Banks Group’s ecologist, in a rush to extract coal before the deadline, conveniently found no newts at all living on the site. The assertion that there were no newts was challenged by everyone who knew the Brooms pond area well. Newts were a central theme in the campaign to stop the mine.

The Campaign to Protect Pont Valley was led by people living in the three villages surrounding the opencast site. The film shows some of the many court hearings, protests, direct action, and a private prosecution for wildlife crimes.

FINITE shows some of the victories from this campaign. The strong resistance to the opencast in the Pont Valley showed that new opencasts are unwanted and irresponsible in the face of the serious impacts from climate change already being felt. This meant that extracting 3 million tonnes of coal from a proposed opencast coal mine near Druridge Bay, in Northumberland, was rejected by central government at the end of 2020. A proposed opencast coal mine at Dewley Hill on the outskirts of Newcastle was also turned down by the planning committee of Newcastle Council in December 2020. Both of these proposals were submitted by Banks Group, who were targetted by campaigners against coal in the Pont Valley.

Although there is very little UK mining happening right now coal mining remains legal. There is currently a proposal for a new underground coal mine at Whitehaven, Cumbria, which was given permission to start in December 2022, but faces legal challenges. There is also an extension proposed to the operating underground coal mine at Aberpergwm, Neath Port Talbot, which is subject to a legal challenge by Coal Action Network.

The tactics used against Banks Group and RWE, shown in FINITE, are applicable against many other extractive industries and unsustainable projects worldwide. Less than 2 miles from where Banks Group opencast mined the Pont Valley now lies Derwentside detention centre. Tactics used in the Pont Valley are now being deployed against this detention centre for asylum seekers, which opened in 2021.

The policing seen in FINITE is familiar to many who fight for social change, and shocking to many who are not yet involved. The interactions between police and protestors in the Pont Valley lead to an academic article, Police and Private Security Responses to the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley Against Opencast Coal Extraction. Even at a low level, the police continue to support the actions of those with money, pursuing projects which are known to cause harm.

FINITE touches on the death of Waka, a much loved part of the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley who was killed fighting for Kurdish freedom by ISIS and Steffan, an embedded journalist documenting the struggle in the Hambacher Forest, killed by the police.

Demand nature be restored to Ffos-y-fran opencast site

February 28th 2025

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd mined for over a year illegally after planning permission for the Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine ended in September 2022. During that year, it made record-breaking profits due to sanctions on Russia and other factors driving up the price of coal. But rather than using some of the profits from that ill-gotten coal…

We investigate mining company’s ‘missing’ millions

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MSW claims “It was established that there are insufficient funds available to achieve the 2015 restoration strategy and therefore an alternative scheme is required.” (EIA Scoping Report, July 2024)… To our knowledge, there has been no evidence submitted by MSW that it cannot fund the full restoration it is contracted to undertake. On the contrary, MSW’s most recent, publicly available, financial statement on Companies House says “Full account has been taken for funding the restoration obligation in the future costs and cash flows”…

UK Government: is the left hand speaking to the right hand?

January 8th 2025

The UK Government launched a consultation on a limited review of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for 8 weeks from 30 July to 24 September 2024. The NPPF is an influential document that shapes planning decisions and priorities across England. It is periodically updated by the Government, following a public consultation…

We expose company’s misleading claims

January 6th 2025

Bryn Bach Coal Ltd attempts to present the anthracite coal it wishes to extract from an expansion of Glan Lash as a unique and scarce commodity that is needed for water filtration, bricks, and graphite, and would therefore be too valuable to burn. Yet, visiting Energybuild Ltd’s…

Major wins of 2024

December 28th 2024

Over the past year, we’ve secured some massive victories. By taking part in our digital actions, supporters sent over 26,000 messages to the UK Government, MPs, Welsh Senedd members, Councillors, and companies to help consign coal to the history books in the UK…

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OTHER STORIES

Demand nature be restored to Ffos-y-fran opencast site

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