Developer shelves homes for coal
copyleft | 09.08.2008 18:26 | Climate Chaos
A developer has shelved plans for a housing development on a former Midlands industrial site to go into the coal mining business.
by Michael Donnelly, PlanningResource, 8 August 2008
Ref:
http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=evz10iI45fgwfuI0
A developer has revealed plans to mine coal at former Midlands industrial site prior to its redevelopment as a mixed-use cheme.
Developer Maximus plans to build 1,300 homes on the site, at Clay Cross in Derbyshire, for which planning permission was obtained in 2006, along with offices, hotels, factories, a country park and sports complex.
But with the housing downturn and the price for coal rising sharply, Maximus is now looking to temporarily cash in on the energy market.
The company estimates there is 70,000 tonnes of coal at the site which will take 12-18 months to extract.
Bryn Hopkinson, director, Maximus said: "Our long-term vision for new jobs, housing and public open space at Silkston remains the same.
"The site requires a major and expensive programme of remediation and dealing with the former coal extraction is a necessary part of the plan to make the site ready for reuse. It will also deliver an overall decrease in lorry movements locally as a result of having to bring in less material from outside of the County to ‘cap’ the site, he added.
"There is a lot to do get this site ready for redevelopment, but this won’t delay our wider plans. The fact that it is now viable to extract the remaining coal has only served to allow us to deliver a more comprehensive and better engineered strategy to clean up the site."
Ref:
http://ecm.hbpl.co.uk/re?l=evz10iI45fgwfuI0 A developer has revealed plans to mine coal at former Midlands industrial site prior to its redevelopment as a mixed-use cheme.
Developer Maximus plans to build 1,300 homes on the site, at Clay Cross in Derbyshire, for which planning permission was obtained in 2006, along with offices, hotels, factories, a country park and sports complex.
But with the housing downturn and the price for coal rising sharply, Maximus is now looking to temporarily cash in on the energy market.
The company estimates there is 70,000 tonnes of coal at the site which will take 12-18 months to extract.
Bryn Hopkinson, director, Maximus said: "Our long-term vision for new jobs, housing and public open space at Silkston remains the same.
"The site requires a major and expensive programme of remediation and dealing with the former coal extraction is a necessary part of the plan to make the site ready for reuse. It will also deliver an overall decrease in lorry movements locally as a result of having to bring in less material from outside of the County to ‘cap’ the site, he added.
"There is a lot to do get this site ready for redevelopment, but this won’t delay our wider plans. The fact that it is now viable to extract the remaining coal has only served to allow us to deliver a more comprehensive and better engineered strategy to clean up the site."
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