Campaign update
Latest - Disappointment as a new opencast coal mine in Shropshire gets the go-ahead despite the Kingsnorth coal plant postponement
Communities and Local Government Secretary, John Denham, made a landmark ruling by accepting proposals for a 230 acre opencast site that will encroach on the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and produce almost a million tonnes of dirty coal. This astounding decision comes at a time when the coal industry already has permission to extract 71 million tonnes of coal from existing mines, and the Government has commited itself to a low-carbon future ahead of the Copenhagen summit.
Despite the local council's considered opinion that the proposal should be rejected - in line with official government policy and environmental considerations - the Planning Inspectorate referred the final say to Mr Denham who gave his approval against the wishes of the local council and community groups who will now have to live with harmful dust and noise pollution, and the loss of 230 acres of greenfield land. Official minerals guidance stipulates a presumption against opencast coal unless workings are shown to be 'environmentally acceptable', and extraction in AONBs out-of-bounds except in 'exceptional circumstances' where extraction of coal is in the public interest.
CPRE is asking the Climate Change Minister, Ed Miliband, to remind Mr Denham that the exceptional circumstance we face is that of runaway climate change, and that extracting and burning more fossil fuel is most definitely not in the public interest. The decision raises concerns that the Government is: moving towards a presumption in favour of coal; increasingly inclined to override the views of local communities; and undermining its commitment to protect special landscapes.
We hope that the announced delay in building Kingsnorth will provide an opportunity for the Government to confirm that no new unabated coal power plants will be built in the UK. We need a joined-up energy policy from the Government to give us a genuinely low-carbon future, one that recognises that both new unabated coal plants AND opencast mining have no place in our energy mix.
Let the Government know that it's no to new coal by sending our e-postcard
http://www.cpre.org.uk/actioncoal
Recent CPRE branch activity on opencast coal mining
CPRE at a local level has continued to fight opencast coal mines, both on the grounds of carbon and their impact on local communities.
CPRE Durham reported a lull in applications between 1998 and 2005 as ‘small’ (500 acres) opencast operations became economically less attractive. This followed a period of 30 cases fought in the last 30 years, with a success rate of over 60% of applications being refused.
The branch has seen a surge in activity since 2005, with three schemes currently being monitored (Park Wall North – awaiting application; Skons Park – withdrawn after CPRE submissions and awaiting a further application; Pont Valley – awaiting determination of application). In all cases branch campaigner Pitch Wilson, a veteran of over 30 opencast public inquiries, has made representations on behalf of CPRE and local community groups.
UK Coal has been given planing permission for five years of workings near Crook, County Durham. The decision comes ten years after campaigners stopped a larger development.
CPRE's Pitch Wilson commented:
“Opencast mining is one of the most environmentally destructive processes being undertaken in the UK. Tow Law and the surrounding countryside has had more than its share."
In Northumberland, the branch is fighting proposals on a number of fronts. Our South East Northumberland campaigner, Gareth Rudd, has made written objections to two recent applications: in 2006 to the Shotton Public Inquiry, on the grounds of Shotton’s Green Belt location and impact of the proposed development on wildlife and the quality of life of local people; and in 2007 at the Portland Burn Inquiry, with particular concern for the effect on the nearby town of Ashington. The branch is dismayed that despite massive community campaigns, in both cases the Government has overturned the County Council’s plans to reject the sites, both of which fell within an area of opencast ‘restraint’.
In the Tynedale District, our campaigner Les Ashworth has recently submitted to the County Council a detailed objection to a proposed opencast mine at Halton Lea Gate. This objection cites the potential for contamination of Hartley Burn during the frequent periods of flooding in the area during heavy rainfall, impacts on local communities and tourism, and inadequate transport links.
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire has dealt with two applications in the last five years, working closely with ex-mining communities to oppose plans. The branch worked with two particularly deprived villages, Goldthorpe and Bolton-on-Deane, to oppose a scheme planned for West Moor Closes, between Barnsley and Doncaster. The scheme collapsed after a vigorous public campaign in the spring and summer of 2003. Opposition was predominantly from locals who valued the area for recreation. While the Branch had traditionally based any opposition on landscape factors, it has more recently placed emphasis on these community factors, as well as CO2 impacts.
In November 2003, the branch objected to the extension of opencasting at Blacker Hill, south of Worsborough, Barnsley. The proposal was on green fields adjacent to a nature reserve, a much-used area of recreation for Barnsley residents. Unfortunately, Barnsley Council granted permission despite the efforts of our campaigner Andy Tickle, who included the following points in the branch’s submission: “We believe the main mineral extracted will contribute to further environmental damage, both in the area and nationally, through its combustion in inefficient power plant and the resulting acid pollution and CO2 emissions. Continuing to fuel this form of energy generation sends the wrong signals regionally about the UK’s international commitments to clean air and combating climate change.”
Although CPRE Leicestershire successfully objected to Coal UK's plan for an opencast coalmine near Ravenstone, the County Council's refusal for the application was subsequently overturned by Appeal.
In Yorkshire, in the last year, both the York and Selby District Group and CPRE West Yorkshire have made representations against a proposed site at Fairburn Ings, located in an SSSI. In March last year, the branch organised a public meeting in partnership with the local Ramblers’ Association in order to gain support for the campaign. It fought an opencast proposal at Ledstone that has been given outline planning permission despite strong objections. It is now objecting to the means of transporting the coal to the power stations by road, arguing strongly that it should be moved by river and canal to save 60 vehicle movements an hour throughout the day.
CPRE Shropshire this year submitted a detailed objection to a proposed opencast site west of Telford on the grounds of incursion into the Shropshire Hills AONB and the adverse effects on local residents from all-night pumps and generators, and noise from equipment maintenance outside working hours. The objection by our volunteer campaigner Vivian Hancock runs to over 4,000 words and is extraordinarily detailed and impressive.
