Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston
Press releases
PRESS RELEASE: 25th June 2010
Opposition to dirty coal plans escalate, as “dirty tricks” fail to stop community campaign.
A public meeting being held on Monday 28th June, 7.45pm at West Kilbride Village Hall, will unite residents of Ayrshire with environmental campaigns from across Scotland, as opposition to plans to build a new coal-fired power station, escalates.
CONCH (Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston) are hosting the first public meeting, since Ayrshire Power lodged their application to build a £3billion coal-fired power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire.
“Many people still don’t realise the scale of what has been proposed and the devastating impact it would have. Formal objections have to be lodged by 20th August. We have organised this meeting to raise public awareness of how to object and build on the growing opposition to Ayrshire Powers dirty plans,” says co-chair of CONCH Maggie Kelly
CONCH had invited Ayrshire Power to join the panel of speakers and have an information stall, but they have turned down this offer. Instead they wanted to meet CONCH in private and limit the number of people CONCH could bring to the meeting to 20.
Just days before the public meeting, CONCH has been the victim of dirty tricks. A 25 foot hand-painted, banner which read “Say No to Hunterston Coal” and gave the deadline for objecting, was deliberately vandalised in what locals have characterised as being “dirty tricks by supporters of dirty coal”. The banner, on private land belonging to a CONCH supporter, was situated very close to Clydeport and the proposed site of the new coal station.
“Unlike Ayrshire Power who have the backing of a multi-millionaire tax exile, CONCH are reliant entirely on volunteers within the community and it was really upsetting to see our hard work deliberately trashed. However, if the perpetrator thought it would stop us from campaigning then they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect and make this local community even more determined to oppose Ayrshire Power’s plans to build a dirty coal-fired power station,” concludes Tim Cowen, co-chair CONCH.
Notes to editors
1) Contacts for more information:
Tim Cowen: 07969 350 825
Maggie Kelly: 07914 803243
2) The public meeting is taking place at 7.45p.m. on Monday 28th June at West Kilbride Village Hall. Press are invited to attend.
3) Members of CONCH will be available for interview and/or photo opportunities at Fencebay Farm, Farmers Market, Fairlie, Ayrshire KA29 0EG on Sunday 27th June from 10 am – 12pm, where they will be having a campaign stall. They will also be available during the afternoon and evening of Monday 28th June.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~CONCH CALL ON SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT TO REJECT DIRTY COAL PLANS
Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston (CONCH) have called on the Scottish Government to reject plans lodged on 2nd June by Ayrshire Power to build a 1600MW coal-fired power station at Hunterston, just 30 miles south of Glasgow, on Scotland’s west coast.
Tim Cowen, co-chair of CONCH says:
“If the Scottish Government support a dirty coal-fired power station at Hunterston it would make a mockery of their commitment to cut carbon emissions and will make it impossible for them to reach their own climate change targets. It would also mean that rather than seeking energy from local or sustainable sources, Scotland will be reliant on importing coal, from countries with terrible records in human rights abuses”.
UK regulations require that any new coal-station must have carbon capture on at least 300MW of its capacity from the outset. This means that around 80% of the proposed coal station emissions would not be captured. CONCH argue that these regulations don’t go far enough, and believe that Ayrshire Power cannot even satisfy these mimimal requirements.
Maggie Kelly, co-chair of CONCH concludes
“Ayrshire Power have not provided a detailed explanation of how their carbon capture plans would work in practice and have refused to discuss or debate their plans at a public meeting. Their claims that their coal station will be clean is the very worst sort of green-wash. Their plans fall well short of the government’s requirements on carbon capture and should be rejected outright”.
21st May 2010
CLEARING THE WAY FOR NEW COAL – the true price of Ayrshire Powers plans?
In June Ayrshire Power are expected to officially submit their planning application to build a new coal power station. They will be seeking clearance from the Scottish Government to build a coal station which would import and then burn at least 3 million tonnes of coal each year.
At a recent meeting held in West Kilbride, members of CONCH heard about impact that coal mining has on Colombian communities – a country which already exports coal to the existing Clydeport facilities and is the fourth largest exporter of coal in the world.
Their guest speaker, Claire H. explains more:
“Just last year it was revealed that Colombian state-sponsored death squads had used ovens to burn traces of people they had killed in the Catatumbo region. The death squads were sent in to terrorise the people into clearing their land, allowing the Colombian state and Multinationals access to the natural resources, primarily coal, palm oil and oil. Arriving into Fairlie on the train and seeing the coal infrastructure already there I was struck with the horrific irony that Catatumbo coal, got out of the ground by literally burning bodies, could potentially be burnt at the proposed coal fired power station. “
She adds:
“At the CONCH meeting, I was positively struck by the humanity of you who were present as you saw the connections between the violence in Colombia, the determination of Colombians there to keep fighting to protect their communities and futures. So thank you CONCH for strengthening my, and many Colombians, faith in humanity.”
Tim Cowen hoped that the visit from Claire would not be a one-off and that closer ties between communities in Colombia and North Ayrshire could be established. He adds: “Claire’s testimony really made us think about the true price of imported coal. We are more determined than ever to make sure that the proposed coal station is not given planning consent.
“Ayrshire Power’s plans are now expected to be lodged in June and people will have just 28 days to send in objections. Despite DONG pulling out and despite the recent vote in the Scottish Parliament, its vital that people are not complacent and do take the time to send in objections. CONCH will be arranging a public meeting so that people can get more information and also keeping people updated via our website.
