A CONTROVERSIAL opencast mining plan at a remote Northumberland village should be rejected, say county planners.
The proposal to dig high-grade coal from farmland at isolated Halton Lea Gate, on the Cumbrian border, has attracted major protests for the third time in 12 years.
Now villagers hope to celebrate a hat-trick of victories when decision-makers at County Hall meet on May 3.
Northumberland County Council’s Planning and Environment Committee will be told the impact on the sensitive environment outweighs the potential benefits of digging 140,000 tonnes of coal from the 75-acre site.
The proposal is a resubmission of an original rejected plan from HM Project Developments of Houghton-le-Spring, who were told they had to produce an ecological impact survey.
HMPD boss Paul Murphy commissioned the survey – but the county planners’ report says: “Little attempt has been made by the applicant to address the reasons for refusal and concerns raised in the previous committee report.
“It is not considered the claimed benefits of the proposal justify the potentially significant detrimental impacts which would arise from the opening up of this area of land adjacent to the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
“There remain extensive gaps in the ecological information submitted with the application which make it difficult to assess the likely ecological impacts of the proposal.
“If the Mineral Planning Authority was to grant permission, this may represent a breach of the council’s legal duties.”
The site would be visible from the Pennine Way and would be “not environmentally acceptable”, the report adds.
Mr Murphy said: “I do not want to comment ahead of the Planning Committee meeting, but I can say that as a company, if this goes against us, we will be immediately going to appeal.”
The site lies close to the North Pennines Moors Special Protection Area, the North Pennines Moors Special Area of Conservation and the Glendue Fells Site of Special Scientific Interest. The county planning committee will pay a site visit on Thursday after the original visit on April 8 was postponed.
Yesterday, Wendy Green, chair of Hartleyburn Parish Council and a leading objector to the opencast plans, said: “We welcome the recommendation but until it is settled at the Planning Committee on May 3 we won’t celebrate.”
Another objector from Halton Lea Gate, Alan Clues, said: “What we want is to stop people coming back with yet another opencast application.”
In 1999, mining firm Andrew Golightly tried to get opencast permission but was also defeated by the determined villagers.
Mr Murphy has pledged up to 60 local jobs if the latest application gets the go-ahead.
He has also promised to restore the site and develop a holiday and equestrian centre at the end of the three-and-a-half- year dig.
