Families close Pike River road - time for the Government to deal

Stand with Pike media release - 11 December 2016

Pike River families have been gifted legal control of the road to Pike River mine by the landowner and will not allow Solid Energy access to seal the mine.

Bernie Monk, whose son Michael was killed in the disaster, says locals are building a checkpoint overnight. “Thanks to the support from all over the Coast we’re now able to totally stop them going ahead with concreting up the entrance to the mine.

“Solid Energy and the Government have tried to ignore us and push us aside. Now they have to listen to us.

“We’ll be in Wellington on Tuesday to take our new expert plan for re-entry to Bill English. He has the chance to do what his predecessor wouldn’t and call off the sealing of the mine.

“Pike River is a crime-scene and we want to get into the drift to recover our loved ones’ remains and the evidence that might be down there. We’ve got a plan to do it and we’re not going to let the opportunity to get answers get buried under hundreds of tons of concrete.

“We’re happy to let DOC through and anyone who needs to do safety work, but sealing up the mine isn’t going to happen.”

Protest action on the occupied land on Logburn Road will begin at dawn tomorrow. Family members will be releasing a new report on re-entry at Parliament on Tuesday.

The surveyor's report is attached.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1612/logburn_road_report.pdf

www.facebook.com/StandWithPike

ENDS

© Scoop Media