Trainer rethinks stance on opencast mine plan

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A LEADING racehorse trainer will not be siding with objectors to an opencast site even though it will take over some of his land.

Howard Johnson believes Britain’s biggest mining company, UK Coal, has done enough to limit the disruption to his yard near Crook, County Durham.

Mr Johnson, whose partnership with millionaire owner Graham Wylie has brought a string of successes, says he will not lose any of his 150 horses or cut staff jobs.

He wants the five-year scheme at the 126-hectare Park Wall North site to start and end as quickly as possible so that life in the area can get back to normal.

The company is expected to be given planning permission on Wednesday to mine part of the former White Lea Farm site between Tow Law, Sunniside and Crook, where it says it will create 60 jobs by digging 1.27 million tonnes of coal and up to 500,000 tonnes of brick-making fireclay.

Durham county councillors are being advised to agree to the development, despite strong objections from residents.

The council turned down a bid for a larger site in 1996, but UK Coal says it has now addressed the reasons for the refusal.

It has also offered a £120,000 community fund to support projects in nearby villages and will finance a mains gas supply to Sunniside if the application is passed.

Mr Johnson agreed that the company had dispelled many of his own concerns.

He said: “They have been very fair. I was going to object and so were my staff, but we are not now.

“They are taking some of my gallop, but they have cut it down from 22-and-a-half acres to half that, and they are putting in a walkway for the horses.

“I am losing a fair bit of land but it won’t make any material difference.

“All the big machines will be away from me, towards the A68, so they won’t bother us here. The site traffic is onto the A68 as well.

“I think the sooner they get on with it the better.”

However, another horseman, Peter Irving, fears the site will affect his hobby.

As chairman of Billy Row Community Association he led a 2006 survey of homes, which produced a 75 per cent vote against the opencast.

Wear Valley District Council subsequently rejected UK Coal’s application in September 2007 when members said noise and dust would blight the area.

Mr Irving hopes to speak against the development at Wednesday’s meeting, at 10am, at Durham County Hall.

He said: “I have already registered the concerns of the hilltop villages.

“We have had other opencast here over the years and now we have wind turbines as well. People are overwhelmingly against this.”

The Campaign for Rural England, Billy Row Community Association and Wear Valley District Council are among 113 objectors, while 64 people have written in support.

From the Northern Echo

Durham opencast site set to get green light

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A NEW opencast pit could be built 10 years after campaigners won their battle to block a mine near their homes. UK Coal Mining Ltd – Britain’s largest coal mining company – wants to take 1,274,500 tonnes of coal and 500,000 tonnes of fireclay over almost five years from a 125-hectare agricultural site in County Durham.

The location, which would be known as Park Wall North, is part of the former White Lea Farm site between Tow Law, Sunniside and Crook. A plan to open a pit there was refused planning permission by Durham County Council in 1996.

An appeal was dismissed by a Government inspector two years later.

The application had been to mine 1.9 million tonnes of coal from a 238- hectare area over seven and a half years.

But the new bid, which goes before county councillors next Wednesday, claims to address the reasons for the past refusal.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has objected to the new bid, saying the area surrounding Tow Law has been subject to opencasting for 50 years.

Its objection reads: “The landscape bears no relation to what it was originally and the cumulative impact is enormous.”

There have been 113 objections, including Wear Valley Council, and 64 letters of support for the bid. Past opencast sites in the area have included Castle Farm 1990-96; Park Wall 1965-69; Roddymoor 1966-69; Sunniside 1969-73; Thornley Grove 1970-72; Helme Park 1976; High Mown Meadows 1980-82; Red Barns 1983-91; and Cold Knott Farm 1978-82 and 1994-96.

A number of windfarms are now operational or have been approved to the north of Sunniside, but planners say it is unlikely there would be adverse combined impacts from the turbines and opencasting.
The company intends to restore the site to include 9.8 hectares of species-rich hay meadow, 43 hectares of new woodland, 1.5 hectares of open water, 69 hectares of agricultural grassland, five hectares of woodland pasture, 10km of new hedgerow and 5.9km of footpaths and bridleways.

It would also work with Community Energy Solutions, set up in 2006, to tackle fuel poverty, to install gas mains to supply the Sunniside community, while a community fund would generate £127,450 over the life of the opencasting.

Planners also say that with more than 60 people employed for the duration of the scheme, this would contribute to the local economy during a period of economic uncertainty and difficulty.
Approval of the scheme is being recommended, with planners advising that the mining would not be overly obtrusive in wider views of the area while the restoration scheme would offer a mix of habitats.

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