The on-going battle over open cast coal in the Douglas Valley has had a shocking development, with South Lanarkshire Council issuing each member of the Douglas and Glespin Community Council with legal notices that proceedings against them are to begin at Lanark Sheriff Court over alleged libel claims. This move is seen by the community as an attack on their freedom of speech.
This latest dispute, where South Lanarkshire Council under the auspices of Archie Strang, council Chief Executive, are taking primary school teachers and pensioners to court in an effort to silence their dissenting voices, comes because of a logo reading “South Lanarkshire COALcil” and an article titled “South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Coal Hand-in-Hand at Community LIE-aison Meeting”. The logo superimposes the Council's logo with that of Scottish Coal, and the article was a repost, linked from the Coal Action Scotland website.
The article described a liaison meeting between the community, Scottish Coal and South Lanarkshire Council. At this meeting, the council made every effort to exclude the community from it, misrepresented what was said in minutes and council workers were indistinguishable from Scottish Coal representatives.
Coal Action Scotland are demanding that South Lanarkshire Council end all legal proceedings immediately and issue an apology to the Community Council.
Fiona Reed from Coal Action Scotland said today: “It is unbelievable that the Council would take legal action over what is essentially a link, and not even contact the original authors of the article. This is nothing more than an attempt to limit the Community Council's freedom of speech. The community has to put up with ill health, environmental and economic degradation from open casting, and now the politically-motivated bullying of this deceitful council. Take it back and say sorry Archie.”
Coal Action Scotland are also asking people to stand in solidarity with the Community Council and post up the controversial logo and article on their websites and blogs.
- The original article can be found here: http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/?p=1635
- Douglas Community Council have been opposing the decisions by South Lanarkshire Council to allow numerous open cast developments throughout the valley for close to 20 years, with the campaign against Mainshill Open Cast Coal site, where over 650 letters of objection were submitted to the council and a survey by MSP Eiline Campbell found that 70% of residents opposed the mine.
- Coal Action Scotland works with communities affected by coal mining and infrastructure and takes direct action in support of campaigns, such as the recent 7-month occupation of Mainshill Wood in South Lanarkshire
- South Lanarkshire Council is renowned in the area for being pro-open cast coal and for putting the interests of Scottish Coal before those of the people in South Lanarkshire. Indeed, the council has never refused an open-cast application by Scottish Coal, despite overwhelming community opposition.
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Re: Bullying Council Takes Anti-Open Cast Community Council to Court
Dear Sirs,
I am writing in response to an article appearing on the Indymedia Scotland website dated 30 August 2010 entitled "Bullying Council takes anti-opencast Community Council to Court" which also contains a link to the Coal Action Scotland website and an article dated 30 May and entitled "South Lanarkshire Council and Scottish Coal Hand-in-Hand at Community LIE-aison Meeting". The latter article includes the comments; "Anti-open cast residents of the Douglas Valley were subjected to the same old lies from South Lanarkshire Council" and "the meetings demonstrated the council and corporate corruption which has blighted the Douglas Valley." Please note that the Council has received no evidence in support of these allegations and I have contacted Coal Action Scotland calling upon them to either provide evidence in support of their allegations and, if they are unable to produce such evidence, then I have insisted upon an immediate public retraction of the statements made within the article. In addition, the use of the Council logo by Coal Action Scotland at the head of this article without permission is improper use of copyright material owned by the Council. The use of the logo is strictly prohibited without prior authorisation and, therefore, this is a breach of copyright regulations.
In relation to the Article on your website dated 30 August 2010 then I would take issue with the statements "At this meeting, the Council made every effort to exclude the Community from it, misrepresented what was said in minutes and Council workers were indistinguishable from Scottish Coal representatives" and also the suggestion that the Council was alleging "libel" or taking "primary school teachers and pensioners to court in an effort to silence their dissenting voices."
The article, as well as being inaccurate, also endorses the Coal Action Scotland call for people to post the controversial article and logo on their websites and blogs and I believe that this is both encouraging an act which is potentially actionable by South Lanarkshire Council and also encourages a breach of copyright regulations. For these reasons I believe that display of both the article and the link on your web site breaches your Terms and Conditions and that both should be removed immediately.
I trust that the above makes the Council's position clear and I look forward to receiving your response by return.
Margaret Mary Cairns
Legal Services Manager
Litigation Team
Legal Services
South Lanarkshire Council
Montrose House
Hamilton
ML3 6LB
Tele:01698 454501, Fax: 01698 454728
E-mail: margaretmary.cairns@southlanarkshire.gov.uk