PRESS CLIPPINGS
A collection of stories - some good, some bad - from the local press and others.
Reoprt on park calls for change
Public transport to the Peak District National Park should be improved, according to a new report by the Council of Europe. The report recommends that the National park Authority finds ways to reduce the number of visitors travelling by car to the Park. It also calls for increased use of rail links for freight through the area. And Park authorities have been advised to oppose any increase in mining and quarrying [Our emphasis - Ed.]

The report was compiled by a European Council official following a three-day visit last July. The inspection followed the Peak District national Park Authority's application to renew its Council of Europe Diploma for Protected Areas.

The Park has held a Council of Europe Diploma for the last 35 years and, following his visit, official Jan Lundqvist renewed the status. The report's findings are due to be discussed at a meeting of the PDNPA on Friday.
- Derby Evening Telegraph, Monday 16 April 2001.
We're in The Guardian!
The following appeared on the Message Board:
there was an article in the guardian yesterday (31.01.01) saying that "the government needs to take urgent action to reduce these land banks," said henry oliver, the cpre's quarrying specialist. "they are a timebomb ticking at the heart of some of our finest landscapes." last week planners in the peak district national park reached a deal to protect stanton moor, an ancient upland tract dotted with bronce age stonecircles and other monuments. it has not satisfied local residents or eco-campaigners. a quarrying company can extract more on the edge of the moor in return for giving up its permissions on two other sites, one close to the nineladies stone circle. it has also agreed to build a road to keep traffic away from villages, and to limit lorry movementsto 10 a day. well then, thats it, i dont know what it means, cause i thought the meeting/decision is gonna be tomorrow....
all the best
jojo
by the way, you can view the whole thing on :
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4127583,00.html
- submitted by jojowombl@hotmail.com, Friday 2 February 2001.
We're on the telly!
Eco-warriors are vowing to fight plans to re-open two quarries which haven't been used for more than forty years. They say they're prepared to stand in front of the bulldozers to prevent what they call the unnecessary destruction of more than thirty acres of land .....

We have an audio clip from the broadcast, pictures may or may not follow depending on how we fare with the editing/compressing software!
file name
and size		 description
ce_news1.mp3
(400kB)		 MP3 sound file, 32kBit, 1'41"
 You may require a sound player capable of handling mp3 files (Windows '98 has one built in, or use WinAmp for Windows or mpg123 for Linux).
- Central News East, Wednesday 11 October 2000.
Protesters’ hi-tech help to protect ancient site
This week sees the first anniversary of the day protesters moved into tents and treehouses on Stanton Moor to save the historic site from quarrying. There are now 30 eco-warriors living at the Peak District camp and support for the protest has spread to all parts of the country, thanks to a number of websites devoted to the cause. Catherine Cunningham reports on how the protesters are faring one year on and how the Internet is helping in the battle against the bulldozers.

At first they were just a handful. Five protesters set up a camp at Stanton Moor near Darley Dale to prevent the controversial reopening of two dormant quarries which lie adjacent to the Nine Ladies stone circle. The five hoped that their presence would deter Stancliffe Stone from pressing ahead with its plans to extract up to 15,000 tonnes of sandstone annually from the Endcliffe and Lees Cross quarries. Nine Ladies, a Bronze Age stone circle, is a scheduled Ancient Monument believed to have pagan and religious significance and the surrounding area is home to a range of flora and fauna, including a herd of Norwegian fallow deer, badgers and bats. The protesters feared that quarrying would damage the stones and destroy the habitats of the wildlife. One year after the first eco-warriors moved onto the site, what was once a few tents has become a network of treehouses and makeshift homes fashioned out of wood, tarpaulin and anything else to hand. From a handful, they have become more than 30 and the Stanton Moor sit-in has laid a claim to be the largest ongoing eco-protest in England.

The campaign against quarrying has received strong support in Derbyshire, with locals making donations of foodstuffs and essential supplies, but a large number of the protesters are not from the area. They have come to boost the numbers at the camp either because they had heard about the protest through friends or read about it on one of the many websites about the campaign. Increasingly, protest groups are looking to the Internet to pass on the latest news about their campaigns. The immediacy of the net and the fact that it can be accessed by anyone, anywhere makes it one of the most effective ways of getting information to supporters no matter where they are. Take, for example, last month's fuel protests. Though seemingly spontaneous and loosely organised, they spread across the country at a blistering pace from a modest start because the protesters had two vital weapons in their armoury – the Internet and mobile phones. Lorry drivers tracked the situation on the Internet then headed for areas where protests were being mobilised and protesters used text messaging and mobile phones to keep each other informed as the situation changed from minute to minute. This modern technology has played its part in the Nine Ladies eco-fight too. To date, the group's main website has been accessed 6,080 times. [It's a few more than that now! - Ed.] In addition, there have been hundreds of hits to linked sites run by independent campaigners backing the protest across the county.

Kaya is a member of the Save Stanton Moor group, which has its own website. She believes that the Internet is a vital tool for protest groups. She said: "The technology is all about communication and all protests of any kind start at a point of communication between the sympathetic parties. With the Internet especially, the distance between the sympathetic parties with regards to communication is eradicated, giving way to instant, uncensored and non-intercepted communication. Generally, this allows news to be passed freely around the world. Like the CND symbols painted onto the walls in the 70s or the public cable networks of the 80s, the Internet provides a place for free speech and expression. More importantly, it provides an anonymous viewpoint to a global community." The Internet allows protest groups to communicate information to supporters at a minimal cost. There are no expensive mailshots or telephone calls to make. Instead, updates can be placed on a website and supporters can log on as and when they please. E-mail links from the web page mean supporters can keep in contact with the protesters, who may not be able to afford to run mobile phones. "In reality it is just another place for the public to use as a soapbox," said Kaya. "It allows people to become involved with a cause they sympathise with. All the people involved with Stanton Moor cannot be at the protest camp for various reasons. The majority are residents holding jobs and keeping families and these are the kind of people who benefit from the Internet the most. With the use of the Internet, these people can take an active role with little disruption to their lives. As well as gaining media coverage from planned events, the protesters can put their own opinions and views forward without fear of prejudice and/or censorship."

Sara Barrett and her husband, Phil, who live in Green Terrace, Stanton Lees, are spokesmen for the Stanton Lees Action Group, which also has its own website. There are links from the official camp website to the action group's site and Mrs Barrett (38) believes that the Internet has been a great asset. She said: "The idea behind the website was so that there was somewhere where people could keep in contact with the campaign whenever they wanted to. There are thousands of people obviously who come to the area and it is only a very small percentage who will want to keep up to date with developments but the Internet is the means for them to do it. For us to mail out everybody or write letters is not practical for financial reasons so the Internet allows us to spread the word and keep people informed. I don't know how many hits we have had but it has certainly been very useful in keeping people up to date and keeping interest going."

According to NUA Internet Surveys, which publishes data on Internet use across the world, in July, 359.8 million people were online worldwide. In the UK alone, latest figures for July show that 32.7 per cent of the population – or 19.5 million people – had access to the Internet. With use of the worldwide web predicted to continue increasing, it is likely that the net will become more and more popular as a means of furthering protests and bringing campaigns to the attention of a global audience. The Stanton Moor protest is a battle to save the ancient from destruction by the modern. It is ironic, therefore, that, in this case, it may be the Internet – arguably one of the greatest inventions of the modern age – which could help them eventually win that fight. The Stanton Moor protesters' websites can be accessed via www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk.

Common aim is to save heritage
Contrary to common belief, living as an eco-warrior does not mean sitting in a tree house all day watching the world go by. There is no hot and cold running water on tap, no corner shop nearby, no comfy bed to snuggle down in. Come rain, snow or hail the protesters at Stanton Moor have been there. Some come for a few months then move on, while others arrive and stay. But no matter what, they always have a presence there.

The first indication that you are nearing the camp is the hammering noises which come from the woodland. As you walk up the steep, muddy path the noise becomes louder. In a clearing, 22-year-old Lee, from Blackburn, is using a hammer and a crowbar to break up old pallets. Dressed in stripy, baggy trousers and with closely-cropped hair, Lee is a self-styled tree dweller. Lee's home is a tree house he has built, though it is far grander then the tree houses we may have played in as children. For example, the pallets he is breaking up will form the second floor of his house. It is a house which can only be reached by shinning up a tree, safety harness or not. Fortunately for Lee, he is a skilful tree climber. Lee has been on other protests and he is confident this one will be successful. He said: "At the moment, there is a lot of work to be done to be ready for winter and have somewhere that is warm and dry. I have been to a few protest sites. People who do come here do work – it's a lot harder than sitting in your council flat all day watching the telly." He said there are usually about 30 or so people at the camp, though they can come and go as they please. "They are people from all walks of life. There is an ex-copper who comes up here, a doctor and ex-services people. They have either seen the site here and do not want to see the place trashed or who have seen the web pages."

There are about 10 tree houses and numerous tents scattered over the site. Fresh water comes from a spring at the top of the cliff and is carried down using plastic tanks. It is a back-to-basics existence. There is no electricity, so the protesters pedal on an old bicycle to generate power which can be used to recharge batteries or the site's mobile phone. They hope to get a wind-powered generator installed. There is no bath or shower, either, but there is a sauna which the tree dwellers have built themselves.

A stone-cutting workshop with a tarpaulin roof is the main focus of the camp. It has a fire set in a stone circle, with chairs and two sofas around it. The living conditions may be basic, but, in every other way, the camp is just like any other community. They cook for each other and address issues and problems as any other community would. Perhaps the only difference is that the protesters describe the camp as a "non-hierarchical system". There is no leader. If there is a problem, they all sit around and discuss it. People are not evicted but they can be asked to leave. The protesters are not just fighting to protect the Nine Ladies stone circle, they are all fighting on behalf of nearby villagers. Lead mines are common in the area and Lee fears that the quarrying could mean lead is washed down into the nearby river. What is clear is that the camp is now a permanent fixture at Stanton Moor. Rather than being simply a collection of tents and tree houses, it is in fact a community with a common aim of saving a piece of Derbyshire's heritage from being destroyed. And until the day they can be sure there will be no quarrying at Stanton Moor, the protesters are here to stay.
- Derby Evening Telegraph, Tuesday 10 October 2000.
No Rave in Stanton Lees
Police say they prevented a rave from taking place in North Derbyshire last night by seizing the organisers' sound system. The party was expected to happen at the same place where a Staffordshire teenager died in June. Rachael Hand reports.
 "
 19 year old Andrew Harrop, from Stafford, fell to his death near the Nine Ladies stone circle at Stanton Lees, near Matlock, three months ago. He'd been at a rave party to celebrate the summer solstice, and an inquest concluded he'd walked off a [23 metre] high cliff in the dark. Police say a similar event was planned for last night to mark the Autumn equinox. But it never got underway after officers siezed the lorry carrying a sound system for the event. No-one was arrested. Police say their action was necessary to protect public safety - and to ensure the area remained peaceful following dozens of complaints of noise from nearby residents during the last party.
" 
Protestors at the Nine Ladies Stone Circle say they hope police will allow them to celebrate the first anniversary of the camp peacefully. Campaigners have been handing out flyers advertising a weekend of activities, but promise not to hold a rave, after a teenager died at their last party. Here's our North Derbyshire reporter Aleena Naylor:
 "
 It's being billed as a weekend extravaganza, but members of the Nine Ladies Anti-Quarry Campaign say the event planned for the 7th and 8th of October will be a time for discussion and reflection. One of the protestors, Mel Burrows, says she hopes they'll be welcoming visitors all weekend. [GOTO AUDIO
NAME: Protest Camp Clip
OUT WORDS: around here"
TO: 0'13"
DURATION:0'13"]
" 
The protestors vowed never to hold a rave at Stanton Lees again, after nineteen year old Andrew Harrop died after falling down a disused quarry following the event last June.
- Broadcast on BBC Radio Derby, Friday 22 September 2000.
Editor's note:
We did not feature this story on the web site at the time, because we did not feel we had complete infomation and could not therefore provide accurate reporting.
Police put the block on Autumnal rave party
Police officers took action to prevent a rave party celebrating the Autumn Equinox from going ahead at Stanton Moor, near Darley Dale.

Officers used powers under the Criminal Justice and Public Order act to block revellers from entering the site on Thursday night. They also took a lorry carrying a sound system to a local police station. No arrests were made.

In June, 19-year-old Andrew Harrop, from Staffordshire, died after falling down a sheer cliff face while attending a Summer Solstice rave at the same location. The event also attracted more than 50 complaints about noise from members of the public.

Superintendent Roger Flint, who was in charge of Thursday's operation, said that he had the full support of the landowners concerned. He said: "The operation was necessary to ensure that the area remained peaceful and that public security was maintained."
- Derby Evening Telegraph, Saturday 23 September 2000.
Planners rescue Stanton Moor from quarry plan
Planners in the Peak District have acted to protect the area surrounding Stanton Moor, a scheduled ancient monument site in the national park, by rejecting a scheme for further quarrying in the locality.

The authority turned down a proposal by quarry operator Stancliffe Stone, which had offered to give up part of its consent for Dale View quarry in order to carry out improved landscaping of the site - but only in exchange for permission to work a larger area nearby.

Planning control committee chairman John Bull said the landscaping proplosal would be welcome, but that the trade-off for increased quarrying was too high a price to pay. It would in effect have increased the reserves of stone to be worked by almost a third.

Bull said: "It's vital that mineral operators understand that the authority is determined to gain effective control of quarrying. Stone will continue to be quaried, but the impact on the landscape and on local residents must be very tightly controlled."

Stancliffe Stone's managing director, Cathy Donnelly, said the company would not be appealing against the decision. It is negotiating with the park authority to defer a decision until later in the year on two other quarries adjoining Stanton Moor.

The firm wants to extract 60 000 tonnes of gritstone a year from Lees Cross and Endcliffe, but it must agree modern operating conditions before re-opening the dormant quarries.
- Surveyor, Thursday 8 June 2000.
Note: this is referring to application NP/DDD/0100/008 (see news story 12.02.00 for details). - Ed.
Rubble Trouble
Rising up in a plateau between Bakewell and Matlock, the former Bronze Age burial ground of Stanton Moor offers one of the most haunting landscapes in the Peak District national park. The combination of birch woodlands, open heather and spectacular views have always been popular with walkers, while the Nine Ladies stone circle and some 70-odd neolithic burial chambers have made Stanton a scheduled ancient monument.

Unfortunately for conservationists, this little jewel in the Peak is also rich in minerals, and the surrounding area is scored with active and dormant quarries. In recent months the future of Stanton Moor has been called into question, following a controversial proposal to re-open a dormant quarry on the edge of the moor.

Since last winter, local residents protesting against the proposal have been joined by an encampment of eco-protesters, and a minor planning dispute has become a major headache for the park authority.

The controversy began in January last year, when the Stancliffe Stone Company submitted a scheme to the Peak Park Authority to work two dormant gritstone quarries at Lees Cross and Endcliffe. To the horror of residents of nearby Stanton Lees, the company proposed to cut a [12-hectare] strip from the side of the moor, excavating 60m tonnes of gritstone annually for the next 42 years.

"I really couldn't believe it," said Leslie Wilson, who moved to Stanton Lees in search of rural tranquility two years ago, "because it is such a beautiful place and it's within the national park. I felt it was impossible that it would be spoilt in such a way."

For the Peak park authority, the Stancliffe proposal was one more round in an ongoing battle between conservationists and the quarrying industry over dormant quarries.

The 1995 Environment Act attempted to address the problem by stipulating that dormant quarries could only be worked in accordance with "full modern planning conditions", but proving whether or not these conditions are being met can be a tortuous and expensive process on both sides.

"There's a tremendous amount of negotiation that's involved and the act is laborious to implement," said councillor John Bull, chairman of the Peak Park Planning Commission. "There have been a number of cases where because of legal challenges we've almost had to go right back to the beginning and start again.

Stancliffe refused to comment on the controversy it had created, beyond a press release claiming that its original scheme contains "modern conditions, based on a detailed environmental assessment".

The company's environmental assessment failed to calm the fears of local residents on a range of issues, including the prospect of heavy lorries on inappropriate roads, noise and dust pollution, tipping and waste removal, environmental damage and the possible blockage of the village's natural water supply.

The villagers' fears seemed to be borne out by the Peak park's officers' report which showed that initial borehole surveys suggested the overall stone quality was likely to be poor, and recommended that gritstone extraction be limited to one tonne a year.

The Stanton Moor encampment is now the largest ongoing eco-protest in England. For the protesters, the residents and the Council for the Protection of Rural England, who are supporting the protest, the quarry proposal has become a test of the Peak park authority's will to protect the land from environmentally-damaging exploitation.

"We recognise that quarrying is part of the culture and tradition of the Peak District," says Dauid Bradley, of the Sheffield CPRE. "However we feel there is a need to move towards a more sustainable approach to winning and working minerals. It is not in the national interest to dig up a national park for prestige projects in the country or abroad."
- The Guardian (Society supplement), Wednesday 10 May 2000.
Plan for Quarry is Causing Concern
The large number of applications for quarrying extensions in the Peak District National Park has become a source of great concern to those who love this beautiful place.

So I was dismayed to learn that the officers of Derbyshire Dales District Council are recommending that the most recent application for quarrying on Stanton Moor near the Nine Ladies Stone Circle should be accepted.

Under the proposal, Stancliffe Stone, the applicant, will give up an area containing 450 000 tonnes of gritstone in return for an extension containing about 726 000 tonnes of gritstone. This commercial gain for Stancliffe of some 60% of recoverable stone is presented as in some way beneficial for the environment, although there will be further damage to Stanton Moor and the growth of lorry traffic along small rural roads will increase the danger to visitors and locals alike.

When villagers contacted the council to ask for the reason behind the recommendations for acceptance, it appeared there were none. There is no minerals officer at the council and, therefore, no way of reaching an informed decision on either the environmental impact of this extension or its effects on local communities.

If the council has no expertise in this area, it should make no recommendation at all.
- Lesley Wilson, Stanton Lees; in Derby Evening Telegraph, Wednesday 23 February 2000.
NINE LADIES LEAPING!
Despite being designated as a National Park, the Peak District is not safe from quarrry merchants. There is an application for two dormant quarries to be reopened on the hillside at Stanton Moor, a site of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows and stone circles including the Nine Ladies circle. A company plans to quarry [7.5 hectares] of land over the next 40 years, extracting 2.39 million tonnes of gritstone.

While the National Park Authority twiddles its thumbs trying to decide whether to do anything, local people and their new friends are taking action to stop the destruction of this wooded slope. A protest camp was set up in the Autumn of 1999, and welcomes visitors, especially if they are able to: The site also needs builders, climbers, tunnellers, supporters and van drivers plus building wood, nails, tools, tarps and food (no more lentils please, or carrots unless you are going to stick around to eat them).
- THE LOOMBREAKER loombreaker@nematode.freeserve.co.uk , no. 8, January 2000.
Quarrying Favour
Despite their designation as ancient monuments and sites of "outstanding natural beauty", Britain's National Parks do not enjoy automatic protection - even from quarrying, it seems.

The Stancliffe Stone Company Limited, a quarry merchant, wants to remove huge chunks (2.39m tonnes to be precise) of lucrative and beautiful gritstone from Stanton Moor in the Peak District - a neolithic and bronze age playground of barrows and standing stones, including the Nine Ladies stone circle.

All that stands between the company and two gaping wounds on the historic moors are some dedicated tree huggers and burrowers (facing a cold Christmas), a small but outraged local community and an uncertain and untested piece of 1995 legislation which is being enforced by the National Parks Authority.
...107 words deleted...
The only piece of legislation that can stop the company is the ambiguous 1995 Environment Act, under which the company must be able to satisfy current environmental demands before it can proceed. With the threat to the historic landscape, the flora - in particular a rare moss, the fauna - badgers, fallow deer and bats, and the impact of heavy plant and lorries, it is hard to see how reopening of the quarries could ever meet today's environmental concerns.
...87 words deleted...
[Stancliffe] quarry director Ian Holmes said in a statement, "we are keen to work with both the Peak Park and the local community to achieve a solution that is best for all parties concerned." Only three weeks earlier the community had watched in horror as Stanclife staff, escorted by police, bulldozed their way onto one of the sites, apparently uprooting and chopping down protected trees in order to carry out a hydrological survey.
- Private Eye, Christmas Edition 1999.
We're on the wireless!
Derby's radio station RAM FM carried a news report today (12.11.99) regarding the Peak Park Planning Board meeting at which it was expected that impracticable conditions would be imposed on Stancliffe Stone if the dormant quarries were re-opened.
- RAM FM (not transcribed verbatim), Friday 12 November 1999.
Protest move at disused quarry
A group of environmental activists has moved onto the site of two disused Derbyshire quarries which could be reopened.
The five-strong team are camping out at the Endcliffe and Lees Cross Quarries site, near Stanton Lees.
Yesterday they voved: "We will stay at the site until it is out of danger from the devastation which will be caused if quarrying goes ahead."
Standcliffe Stone[sic] bought the long-term lease of the site in 1995 for GB£800 000 from the Haddon Hall estate landowners. The site already had planning permission for quarrying.
But because it had lain dormant for more than 40 years Matlock-based Sandcliffe[sic] needed further approval from the Peak District National Park Authority before reopening the site.
Eco-warriors Lilly, Zebs, Sonya, Zoë and Dred are occupying the site in a bid to protect the wildlife and fauna which they claim will be destroyed if the mining goes ahead.
Zebs is pictured with his canine pal Dylan. [photo omitted]
- Derby Evening Telegraph, Friday 15 October 1999.