Dumped pit waste site is reborn

Jun 28 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

Environment Editor Tony Henderson reports on the ongoing recovery of a once- despoiled coastline.

A FORMER pit site where colliery waste was dumped into the sea for decades was yesterday unveiled as a major gateway to the reborn County Durham coast.

The Durham Heritage Coast Partnership has invested £600,000 in transforming Nose’s Point, just south of Seaham.

It was the site of Dawdon Colliery, which closed in 1991, and extensive reclamation work has meant that the area has been cut off from local communities for years.

But the partnership’s efforts now mean new life for a site which has spectacular views north towards Seaham and south across Blast Beach to the North Yorkshire coastline.

Yesterday’s opening was attended by Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England, Dr Helen Mounsey, chairman of the Coal Authority, Durham County Council chairman Len O’Donnell and Heritage Lottery Fund regional committee member David Miller.

Songwriter Jez Lowe, who lives in Horden, performed music which has been inspired by the Durham coastline.

The improvements at Nose’s Point included planting 2,000 trees to restore Ginny’s Dene, new stepped access to Frenchman’s Cove, a car park and drystone wall shelter and seating, and the creation of three ponds and magnesian limestone meadows.

Newcastle artist Alec Finlay has also created Skyfield, which consists of wind socks attached to 11 flagpoles.

The socks are dark and light blue and white to suggest the sea and sky.

“What was wasteland is now an excellent place for people to enjoy,” said heritage coast projects officer Louise Harrington.

Colleague Niall Benson added: “The old colliery site has been turned into a warm and welcoming gateway to the Durham heritage coast.

“It is a tipping point now in the sense that it marks a new chapter for the coast, and ties in with the regeneration of Seaham.”

In 2002 the heritage coast partnership of 15 bodies was set up to build on the work of the Turning the Tide project, which in 1996 began to clear a century of tipped coal waste from the coastline. Achievements of the partnership include securing £3.5m for coastal improvement schemes, with £800,000 being spent at Crimdon.

A £700,000 scheme is due to start at Horden.

The coast has also benefited from the setting up of an East Durham coast and countryside ranger service, which has 63 volunteers.

Around 6km of the coast is now National Trust property and a 13km coastal path links Seaham and Crimdon.

Later this year at the Dawdon site, the Coal Authority will open the biggest and most advanced minewater treatment system of its type in Britain.

Following the closure of the pits, the authority has been monitoring rising water levels in old mine- workings, which posed a potential threat to a major drinking water aquifer for East Durham.

“It was getting to the point that if we didn’t control the minewater, it could pollute the groundwater,” said authority spokesman John Delaney.

A temporary system was set up at Horden to treat minewater and discharge it to sea after meeting Environment Agency standards.

This gave the authority time to develop the permanent scheme at Dawdon, while the Horden site will become a passive treatment system of lagoons and reedbeds.