50 images Created 10 May 2018
Pont Valley protection campaign May 2018
The protect Pont Valley campaign was started by locals to prevent the mining company BANKS starting extracting coal from a proposed open cast coal mine. BANKS has got license to start digging at the latest by June 4th 2018. Day of protest in Pont Valley, 5 May 2018 against the extraction of coal by the mining company Banks outside Dipton in Pont Valley, County Durham. Locals have fought the open cast coal mine for thirty years and three times the local council rejected planning permissions but central government has overruled that decision and the company Banks was granted the license and rights to extract coal in early 2018. Locals have teamed up with climate campaigners and together they try to prevent the mining from going ahead. The mining will have huge implications on the local environment and further coal extraction runs agains the Paris climate agreement. A rare species of crested newt live on the land planned for mining and protectors are trying to stop the mine to save the newt.