Opencast mine row will continue

Mar 16 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

A BATTLE over a proposed opencast mine in Northumberland is set to run on after the project was hit by delays.

HM Project Developments is seeking to excavate 140,000 tonnes of coal from the tiny hamlet of Halton Lea Gate, near the Cumbrian border. A planning application has already been submitted to Northumberland County Council for three-and-a-half years’ work at the 75-acre site.

It had been anticipated that the project would be determined by the council this month, 13 months after details of it first emerged.

But last night, opponents said they had been told by the council the application has now been deferred until the autumn.

The delay is said to have been caused by the need to ask the applicant to submit more information on its proposal, in terms of environmental impact and archaeology.

Last night, Nick Kennon, chairman of the North Pennines Protection Group which is leading local opposition to the development, said the deferral was a mixed blessing.

He said: “It is good for us but it is bad in a way because it is another six months in waiting. In the present economic climate that might not necessarily be a good thing for them, which is a good thing for us.

“It is good that the council makes them do everything because it could trip them up for us.”