Cambois power station campaigners stage cycle protest

May 5 2009 by Joanne Butcher, The Journal

GREEN protesters and a local community yesterday joined forces to slam plans for a new power station.

Activists from the Coal Caravan joined with PANiC Stations and Make Poverty History North East to fight proposals to build a coal-fired power station at Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland.

Campaigners cycled more than 250 miles from Nottingham to meet people living next to the suggested site.

They staged a day of workshops and talks as well as a screening of climate change film The Age of Stupid, which was powered by pedalling bikes.

En route, the group – part of the Climate Camp movement who staged a protest during the G20 summit in London – visited sites including Dipton in Stanley, County Durham, where there is a bid for an open-cast mine.

North East coordinator for the Coal Caravan, Anna Harris, said: “One of the reasons we have cycled here is to show how close together all the proposed sites for power stations and open-cast mines in the North are. We want to bring people in different areas together.

“We have learnt a lot from the people we have spoken to along the way about how these power stations will affect their lives,” added the 25-year-old, a cycle trainer from Hexham.

“The North of England too often gets ignored by lobbyists in London, but we are all fighting the same giant.”