Two arrested in coal mine protest

Two protesters were arrested yesterday afternoon outside Solid Energy's Christchurch office, where they were opposing a planned West Coal coal mine.

The arrests came after the company asked police to remove a group demonstrating against its proposed Cypress opencast mine in Happy Valley, 17km northeast of Westport.

Senior Sergeant Rob Patterson of Sydenham police said the two people arrested were charged with being unlawfully on a building and bailed to appear in court at a later date.

Solid Energy said it asked police to remove the protesters because they were sitting on a glass canopy over the building's entrance.

"If the glass had caved in, someone could have been badly hurt," said the chief executive of the state-owned company, Don Elder.

The arrested protesters were part of a group of 12 to 15 people who arrived outside the Addington building on Sunday.

Four of the protesters chained themselves to the building on Sunday, and others camped the night there in support, despite heavy rain and strong winds.

"Certainly in the middle of the night it was pouring down and it was pretty damn windy. But we're still here," said Jonothan Oosterman, one of three people still locked to the building yesterday morning.

The protesters were particularly concerned about the prospect of the mine damaging the habitats of the great brown kiwi and the giant snail.

But Dr Elder said that the company had gone to great lengths to minimise the mine's environmental impact.

"We have also consulted extensively with the Department of Conservation which has withdrawn its objections to the proposal."

The Environment Court was yesterday due to start hearing appeals against the planned mine, and before the arrests Mr Oosterman said the protesters planned to stay for the duration of the court's hearings - possibly as long as four weeks.

He said the groups knew exactly what Solid Energy should be doing at Happy Valley. "Absolutely nothing. We don't believe that any coal mine should go into Happy Valley at all.

"Even with the strictest of conditions it's still not going to be satisfactory for us, predominantly given the fact they cannot avoid destroying the kiwi and the snail habitats, they cannot avoid polluting the riverways, they cannot avoid destroying the wetland and they certainly cannot avoid the climate change effects of burning the coal."

But Solid Energy spokeswoman Vicki Blyth said the Environment Court appeal process would have been a better forum for the protesters to voice their concerns, along with Forest and Bird, the Buller Conservation Group and Ngati Waewae from the West Coast.

- NZPA