Objections grow to opencast mine
Around 40 letters objecting to plans for an opencast coal mine at Halton Lea Gate have been lodged with Northumberland County Council.
And the county is inviting more people to express their views about the controversial scheme submitted by HM Project Development.
Consideration of the application was adjourned at this month’s meeting of the county planning committee, so that councillors could visit the site themselves.
And the county will host a public meeting in the area before Christmas prior to making a final decision on the bid to extract 140,000 tonnes of high quality coal from the site over a three and a half year period.
Seven 25-tonne heavy goods vehicles will access the site every day.
However, local residents believe the scheme will have a devastating impact on their lives and fear the effect the opencast mine will have on the local environment.
County councillor Ian Hutchinson, who lives in Whitfield, told a packed emergency meeting of Hartleyburn Parish Council there had been overwhelming opposition to the scheme.
The parish council decided to object on numerous grounds, including the increase in heavy goods vehicles driving to and from the village each day, and the threat to the area’s wildlife.
It was also agreed that members of the public should write individual letters of objection to the county council, as they felt petitions and template letters had no effect on officers whatsoever.
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