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Nant Llesg Opencast Fighting Fund

The time has come to take a stand. To take a stand against opencast mining. We need to stand together side by side and with one voice shout NO MORE!!! 

 
Please donate no matter how small. Please help us secure our future!


YOUR FUTURE!!


OUR PLANETS FUTURE!!!


A battle has been won but the war continues!

We need your help, We need your support and we need your Money to help us keep on fighting!!!!!!

The Council rejected the proposed opencast mine at Nant Llesg. But we are sure the developer will be regrouping for the next onslaught. 

 

This application will go to appeal. We are sure the developer will go all out to overturn this decision. They will pull out all the stops and employ as many experts that they can find, they will put on every ounce of political pressure the coal lobby can muster. This will be a hard and expensive fight but with your help we can do it. With your help we can turn the tide against these companies that seek to profit from our misery.

Nant Llesg sits high on the Merthyr & Gelligear common. In the shadow of the Brecon Becons National park.overlooking the communities of Rhymney, Pontlottyn, Abertysswg and Fochriw It's pond a haven for migrating and nesting birds, and its peat bog established over many hundreds of years hosts a plethora of flora and fauna.

The developer, Miller-Argent South Wales) Ltd, want to rip the heart out of this wonderful land fill in the wonderful pond all in their search for GREED!

We must stop them!!!!! 




 

Even though they received 1000's of objections, the planning officers of Caerphilly County Borough Council recommended approval of the application. Whilst simultaneously refusing a single wind turbine on the grounds of visual impact! 

YOU COULD NOT MAKE IT UP!!!!

Even during the special planning meeting when the Councillors were poised to vote against the application the officers were baracking them; putting pressure on them to ignore the pleas of the objectors and approve the application. 


http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/952103/nant-llesg-campaigners-anger-as-planning-officers-say-yes-to-opencast-mine-but-no-to-wind-turbine/


THIS IS IMMORAL & UNETHICAL!!!!

 



On Wednesday 5th August Caerphilly County Borough Councillors took the momentous & unanimous decision to ignore the officers recommendation and REJECT the planning application for the Nant Llesg Surface mine.

Cllr Gaynor Oliver stated "it's for the committee to decide not the officers"


Cllr Dave Rees said: “Let’s help the people of Rhymney, Pontlottyn and Fochriw have their heads held high and when they do, we don’t want them getting black dust in their teeth.”

Cllr David Carter the committee’s chairman said “The visual impact affects the whole community from the children who are going to school to the elderly and sick. The people of the northern Rhymney Valley are being asked to pay to big a price for this development.”

 

This was an historic decision which crossed all party lines and showed the people that our Councillors, even under extreme political and financial pressure were going to stand by the people that elected them. We hope that to this decision will inspire other Cllrs in a similar position.

 

Vote for the people that elected you not for the big companies that threaten you!!!! 


Here was our reaction when the decision was announced!!!

 



 

We have won the first battle now we need your help


This application was to mine 478 Hectares of open common in the Upper Rhymney Valley. It was to take 20 years from start to finish and was to destroy the common forever. It will rain dust and noise down on our communities for a generation. The shadow from the mine will bare down on our communities with 50m overburdens that will be 46 times the size of the millennium stadium.




The United Valleys Action Group has been fighting off the planned opencast mine at Nant Llesg near Rhymney in the welsh valleyssince 2010. We started as a small group of people from the surrounding communities.
Ex miners, Electricians, BT Engineers, Secretary’s, Mum's, Dad's & Granddads we came together from all walks of life. Our sole aim was to protect our homes and our environment from the threat of 15 years of noise, dust , and light pollution. We can not see  a generation growing up not knowing clean air and green hillsides.


 

We have a proud history of mining here in the valleys, but the age of coal was 100 years ago. It is exactly that - history. We know more now of what the imapct is on our communities and on our planet.


N
ow is the time to stop -- Stop burning it:- Stop digging it up.


We need to look to the future. To our children's future, To a Green future. Leave fossil Fuels in the past where they belong - Leave them in the Ground!.


We do not have unlimited supplies of money. We have held sponsored walks, donations & fund raised to keep us afloat, but we need more to take on the company and the Welsh government when this goes to appeal..

We have held protests at the Senydd and the Council offices 

 

 

 

We took on Miller Argent with their pots of money, their rooms full of experts and lawyers. We were presented with 1000's of pages of technical documents which we had to trawl through and create our objections. 

So desperate were the developer to secure this application that they put the council under threat of litigation if they were to refuse the application and they were to win under appeal. 

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/04/coal-company-threatens-to-sue-welsh-borough-if-mine-permit-is-denied 

Even the local council officers seemed set on pushing through this application with the legal dept gagging Councillors from speaking to objector's even though the "Localism Act 2011" said they were allowed to 

http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/944698/silenced-councillors-told-not-to-comment-on-nant-llesg-opencast-mine-plan/

It was these sort of bullying tactics that we all face everyday from huge corporations that feel that they have the god given right to ruin our countryside pollute our environment and slow destroy our planet.

We are absolutely positive that the developer will appeal this decision. They will try to circumvent our councillors and take the matter to appeal in front of an appointed inspector and the minister representing the Welsh Assembly. 

 

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO FIGHT THEM!! 

With your help we will be able to put up a real fight. With your donation we will be able to fill our armoury and make a real stand. We will be able to counter any argument they use. 

 

WE WILL STOP THEM!!!

 

The time has come so say NO MORE!!





Help us Turn this win into a VICTORY!!! 

Help us stop this sort of destruction forever!


NO OPEN CAST!! NOT NOW NOT EVER!!!

 

find us on Facebook

The United Valleys Action Group


Eddy Blanche
Vice Chairman
United Valleys Action Group 

 


Some press coverage from the campaign

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/trial-valley-protest-held-against-8528681

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/protesters-continue-battle-stop-what-7283113


http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/947626/nant-llesg-campaigners-boost-from-hollywoods-michael-sheen/

http://www.caerphillyobserver.co.uk/news/952872/nant-llesg-opencast-buried-as-caerphilly-councillors-defy-threats-to-sue-and-reject-plan/

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2978617/campaigners_celebrate_as_caerphilly_councillors_vote_the_coal_stays_in_the_ground.html

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2015-08-05/caerphilly-council-set-to-make-decision-on-nant-llesg-opencast-mine/ 

 



Organiser

Eddy Blanche
Organiser

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