Drax’s Coal Supply Threatened After Protesters Damage Conveyor Belt

Activists at a mine in Scotland damaged a 6.5km conveyor belt responsible for transferring 200,000 coal from Glentaggart to Ravenstruther every year. The damage could threaten Drax’s coal supply if not repaired in a timely manner. 

The protesters, who are supposed to have come from Climate Camp, sabotaged a conveyor belt which supplies coal to a railway depot at Ravenstruther. At 6.5 km long the conveyor belt saves the Scottish coal mine up to 30,000 lorry trips per year. The mine supplies 70% of Scottish opencast coal to power stations in the south such as Drax in Yorkshire. Spokesman for Scottish Coal say that the conveyor belt should be fixed by tomorrow, but until then lorry traffic will increase exponentially on the local roads because of the sabotage. 

“The Glentaggart conveyor is used by Scottish Coal as a way of reducing the road transportation of coal,” he said. “This reduction in road traffic responds to the wishes of the local community in Douglas,”said a spokesman for Scottish Coal.

The local police have yet to confirm whether or not they are investigating the incident. This latest sabotage is part of a string of similar incidents during anti-coal protests held by environmental activists in Scotland. The activists are also believed to be responsible for an occupation at Kingsnorth power station in Kent last year and the halting of a coal train near Drax also last month which led to 22 arrests.

Drax is one of the largest coal power plants in Europe and the UK’s highest carbon dioxide emitter and is often the target of environmental protests and disturbances. 

Special thanks to guardian.co.uk for the above quote, for more information please view the article on their website.