Campaign to Protect Pont Valley has launched a private prosecution against Banks Group for destroying the breeding and resting places of protected Great Crested Newts at Brooms Pond, on the Bradley opencast near Dipton. Update: The first hearing is to be 12th December at Peterlee…

We’ve been working with communities against opencast coal mines and UK power stations for a whole decade. To celebrate we’re looking at our achievements a year at a time. Want to help us celebrate? Donate to our legal fund against the last opencast company looking…

This week Banks Group went to the High Court to try and get a decision made by the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government over-ruled on a new opencast extraction near to Druridge Bay in Northumberland. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)…

300 metres from houses at High Stables, Dipton, the habitats of protected species are being destroyed to extract coal; fuelling climate change and lining the pockets of the mining company, Banks Group. We believe we can prove that Banks Group has committed crimes against wildlife,…

The Campaign to Protect Pont Valley was visited by three special guests from Colombia this week. We hosted Misael, an indigenous leader, Rosa and activist lawyer and Aldo the president of the national coal workers union. We had events in Dipton, Durham Miners Association and…

Waka is gone. It doesn’t feel real to say that, but someone who lived with us through snow and heat waves in the Pont Valley has been killed in Kurdistan, fighting against ISIS. Waka was an otherworldly being. Like no-one I have ever met. A…

We did it, Nant Llesg has been saved from the ravages of opencast coal mining! This piece of land which above the villages of Rhymney, Fochriw, Bedlinog, Pontlottyn. Deri, Abertwsswg will not be blown into pieces to be tossed up into the wind and end…

Coal Action Network has been wanting to write about the death in the Hambacher Forest of activist Steffen Horst Meyn. We haven’t been able to, so will republish the media release from Hambi Bleibt. In solidarity and love with all those who have lost their…

On Monday, all five defendants were acquitted of aggravated trespass for actions intended to delay and stop Banks Group accessing land to start an opencast coal mine in the Pont Valley, Durham. The five were in various positions including locking on to arm tubes submerged…

As we march in the Durham Miners Gala behind our new banner, we stand in solidarity with working class people fighting against state oppression in search of a better life for our communities. Durham Miners’ Association support our campaign against new opencast in the Pont…

Diversity in the ecological sense is treasured. On a global scale conservationists focus a lot of their time and resources on the protection of the most diverse ecosystems if we are talking land the most diverse area is a tropical rainforest and a fuss is…

Can you help the Campaign to Protect Pont Valley? We are asking that you email James Brokenshire, the Secretary of State for Communities, Housing and Local Government and ask him to stop the Bradley opencast. A template letter is below. The email address is james.brokenshire@communities.gsi.gov.uk…

*** ONLINE PROTECTORS, WE NEED YOU NOW *** Rainton and Tynedale Roadstones, part of MGL Group, are in the process of tarmacking the access road for the opencast site. Although Banks Group have contracted the MGL Group it is unlikely that they are fully aware…

Tracy Gillman, a local resident and campaigner, put together this potted history of the 30 year community struggle against opencast at Pont Valley (near Dipton and Leadgate in County Durham). The local community have been fighting applications on this site for 50 years. The first…

Today Bank’s Group said that it “formally commenced mining operations at their new Bradley surface mine.” Suggesting that planning permission has been triggered. Local residents saw that Banks Group started working this morning in Brooms Pond which is a nature conservation value at County level,…

Campaign groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and 38 Degrees have challenged the recently appointed Secretary of State for Communities, James Brokenshire, to ‘act urgently to secure this government’s position as a world leader in phasing out coal’, by revoking the permit for…

Local residents block potential opencast coal site risking arrest to protect their community This morning (15/05/18) two Durham residents living just 300m from the controversial Bradley opencast coal extraction, blocked the gates to the work site for three hours, before being dangerously moved by the…

The Campaign to Protect Pont Valley is still going strong. Despite their best efforts Banks Group has not finished the preparation which triggers planning permission. Everything is still to play for. Please come to one of the up coming community demonstrations. On Saturday 5th May…