Valley battling opencast plan
Feb 2 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal
CAMPAIGNERS opposed to an opencast mine on their doorstep are holding a public meeting today.
The Pont Valley Network wants to explain its opposition to UK Coal’s proposal to opencast the Bradley site, in Leadgate, near Consett, County Durham.
The company has submitted a planning application to Durham County Council to take 556,000 tonnes from 68 hectares of land off the A692 between the villages of Leadgate and Dipton, beneath the Pontop Pike TV mast.
Network member David Shields, 57, a retired squadron leader from St Ives Road, Leadgate, said: “This area has been scarred in the past by underground mining and the steel industry, and it is now recovering.
“We have red deer, red kite, and a lady rang me the other day to say she had spotted a red squirrel in the Pont Valley.
“We don’t want our valley scarred by opencast mining for the next three and a half years, with an increase in noise, traffic and pollution. If this gets the go-ahead I will consider leaving and I know of several other people who may well leave.”
Mr Shields said more than 3,000 locals had signed a petition opposing the opencast.
UK Coal says the proposal would create 38 jobs, produce 556,000 tonnes of coal needed for the British steel or electricity industry, and provide a new conservation area after mining is completed within three years. The application will be considered by Durham County Council planners in April.
According to UK Coal’s submission, six coal wagons per hour would travel to and from the site via a new roundabout at Brooms Lane, and along the A693 through the villages of Annfield Plain and Oxhill, and then through Stanley on to the A1(M) at Chester-le-Street.
Movement will be restricted to 7am to 7pm Mondays to Fridays and 7am to noon on Saturdays.
Stuart Oliver, media relations officer for UK Coal, stressed that mining would last for two and a half years and the site would then be landscaped and restored. He said: “We recognise there will be an intrusion but energy prices are rocketing and the site contains prime coking coal which the British steel industry currently has to import.”
The open meeting starts today at 10.30am, in Dipton Community Centre where details of the application will be on show.
