The action was done to show that regardless of the camp being evicted from 9 Ladies site, that Marshall’s or Stancliffe Stone are still very easy to shut down and that activists can cause economic damage in a peaceful non violent way.
Hands off
Tripods up
Arty shot
get the message
Local police were on the scene in thirty minutes followed by a variety of ever increasing police ranks and vehicles that had to park up the road because we didn’t leave them enough room to park on Stancliffe’s site. The event turned out to be quite a show for the police, as police sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors started to turn up and went inside to speak to Mr Jones of Stancliffe Stone. Later a divisional command post turned up as well as Derbyshire’s police tripod team with the compulsory camera and video crew.
Mr Jones the head honcho of Stancliffe at first refused to come out and talk to any of us, but later, under heavy police escort stated he wished us to leave and did not want to engage in dialogue at this time, this was one of the requests made by the protest. The Chief inspector, then proceeded to read us the caution before arrest, that if we didn’t leave now we would be arrested, so after some discussion with each other it was decided that we did not want to give the police tripod team any practise at taking the tripods down and evicting the climbers on top (this way we can do it again!) and as we started to pack up our kit, Mr Jones offered for us to arrange an appointment to come and talk about the situation. There were no arrests, and police followed us up the road for a short while, where we were met by an enthusiastic local, who congratulated us on our action and offered to house our tripods, allowing us to collect them at a later date, the police miffed by missing out on a training practise walked off the other way. A further scheduled phone blockade followed by supporters who could not make the action
Stancliffe stone has been trying to Quarry the 9 Ladies site since 1999, but their plans have been stopped by activists living on site of the proposed quarrying area in the Peak District National Park, an area of outstanding national beauty and importance which is meant to be protected for its ecological value and for all people to enjoy.
In 2001 Marshall’s PLC bought out Stancliffe Stone Ltd, which is planning to open two dormant Quarries in the Peal Park, near the 9 Ladies Stone Circle on Stanton Moor (between Bakewell and Matlock). The quarrying will devastate a beautiful and valuable area of moorland and wooded hillside, as well as heavily impacting on an archeologically important site due to a loophole in the law that should protect the site.
A further 47 other dormant quarries in the peak district National Park are also vulnerable to having their dormant status lifted and being re opened as active quarries using this loophole, which will devastate the beauty of the land and communities living near by.
Further actions are planed, pending the discussions with Mr Jones
Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
cool
23.11.2004 20:13
what are stancliffs phone numbers by the way
karl
quarried stuff
23.11.2004 21:47
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Local Support against Stancliffe
23.11.2004 22:07
Good action though, as a local I have heared they realy don't want this to happen again, its given them a real shock. But then they should stop quarrying. Any chance of doing the same at Longcliff
Thank you
freinds in Grange Mill
Dave
Phone books
23.11.2004 23:51
Provincial
Nice one :-)
24.11.2004 09:53
Pete
really nice action, but an increasingly dangerous reporting trend!
24.11.2004 12:22
to use the term "non-violence" to describe a blockade makes it "acceptable" direct action which further enforces the idea that other actions are unacceptable. the people who are really being hit hard by this are the animal liberationists. as a fellow eco-activist who has done and will do 9 ladies support actions, im not prepared to go on ones that assist in the state penalising those considered militant and on the margins. and sorry, but that's what the communication of this action does.
blockading somewhere for 3 hrs is brilliant, and does cost economic damage, and is a fun ace thing to do. so is smashing windows in the night (also obviously not a violent act, but usually not reported as such), and so are other acts of resistance. instead of trying to protect our own individual campaigns by unnecessary distinctions (eg the state is succesfully persecuting animal liberationists as violent, let's hammer home that this action is 'non-violent' so we keep ourselves safe) let's show a bit of backbone and revolutionary solidarity!
for the wild.
solid arity
Reporting Trend
24.11.2004 18:16
More actions, less talk!
Percy Pragmatix
use
25.11.2004 18:14
know any massive projects were marshalls quarried national park stone +is+ being used? don't see how a phone book would help anyone there.
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