Families to oppose new opencast bid

May 2 2009 by Dave Black, The Journal

FAMILIES in neighbouring villages are set to oppose plans to revive opencast mining operations in part of Northumberland which has been affected by the industry for decades.

UK Coal wants to dig just over a million tonnes of coal and 200,000 tonnes of fireclay from 250 acres of land at Butterwell, north of Ashington.

Butterwell was extensively opencasted from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, when it was Europe’s largest surface mine, and the new bid aims to recover the remaining coal reserves, reclaim the area and restore it to agriculture.

The project – which UK Coal says will provide work for more than 80 miners and last four years – will result in the demolition and removal of the disused Butterwell Disposal Point, where coal from local sites was stockpiled, processed and transported to customers.

Next week county councillors are expected to agree to hold a site visit and a public meeting to examine the proposal, which is set to re-ignite debate over continued opencast operations in the area north of Morpeth and Ashington.

The Butterwell site is close to Potland Burn near Ashington, where UK Coal has been granted approval to extract two million tonnes from 600 acres of land despite major local opposition. Operations could affect people in the neighbouring parishes of Longhirst, Ulgham and Ellington and Linton.

Yesterday Longhirst Parish Council chairman Jim Scott, said: “The general view here is that we are opposed to any more opencasting because we have had 50 years of it round about the village. Despite all the assurances that there will be no disturbances caused by mining, there will be.

“Potland Burn is just over the road from the Butterwell site and the operations would overlap. For some people in our parish it would mean having two opencast sites working in tandem, quite close to each other.”

Longhirst Parish Council chairman Bob Jackson said the Butterwell scheme would be a topic for debate at the annual parish meeting on Thursday. “I know some of our residents are not happy about it and I believe there will be opposition. Some houses will have opencast mines on two sides of them.”

But Linton sub-postmistress Janet Robson said she doesn’t expect villagers to oppose the plan. “We lived with the previous opencast site at Butterwell for many years and it didn’t really cause any problems.

“This new application will get rid of the disposal point and create employment, so it will benefit the area. I don’t think people here are against it.”

A report to the county council planning committee on Tuesday says: “This is a major planning application which is likely to generate substantial local interest.”

We are opposed to any more opencasting because we have had 50 years of it