Support the Local Campaign Against Bradley Proposed Open-cast
Coal Caravan | 17.02.2010 19:16 | Climate Chaos | Culture | Ecology
This years EF! winter moot was held in Dipton Community Centre, which looks over the proposed site for an open-cast at Bradley. Members of the local campaign against the mine have asked if people who attended the moot, (as well as those who didn't) would write in their objection to the development.
UK Coal's application is expected to be heard by the planning officials in the near future. The local campaign would appreciate it if people would write in letters of objection to the following address, stating the APPLICATION No. CMA/1/37
Mrs C.L.Teasdale
Plannng Development Control Team
Regeneration and Economic Development
Durham County Council
Durham
DH1 5UQ
Apparently letters hold more weight if you say that you have visited the area.
The facts about this proposed mine:
UK Coal has applied to surface mine 556,000 tonnes of coal from a coal seem covering 22,000 acres.
The current version of the application is has not yet gone to the Planning Authority.
The application is being resisted by The Pont Valley Network www.pontvalley.net
If the application goes ahead the residents are particularly concerned about the loss of their heritage sites.
The final destination for the coal is either the steel industry or a power station generating electricity.
Burning this coal will release over 2 million tonnes of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
UK coal say the mine will create 38 jobs. Mr Cory of UK Coal says that there will be no new jobs but people will be transferred to this site.
The mine will need 3 lorry trips per hour, each way.
UK coal and other surface mining companies have applications at the planning stages for a further 13 mines in the area and a further 5 have been granted in the area.
The nearest planned site also currently at the planning stages is Skons Park, which Hall construction are applying to extract half a million tonnes of coal fire clay. This application was last refused in 2007 but Halls have since reapplied this year.
The Bradley site is 10 miles south of Newcastle in a beautiful area. The proposed site can be seen from Newcastle and Cheviot on a clear day. A mine would scar the landscape; cause habitat destruction which would affect many species, including Great Crested Newts and Red Kites; contribute to global warming; increase traffic locally and destroy the remains of wagon-ways and bell pit and shaft mines in the area. Residents are also concerned that if the mine is given the go ahead then they will see further extensions applied for and granted.
For more information about the site and to add strength to letters of objection please see
http://pontvalley.net under NOTT campaign on the left hand side.
Coal Caravan
Homepage:
http://www.pontvalley.net/cms/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=6&MMN_position=5:5
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Plea to make sure bell pit site remains
09.03.2010 14:01
AN historian is fighting to preserve an historic monument to the region’s industrial heritage.
David Marrs fears plans to excavate more than half a million tons of coal from land at Bradley between Leadgate and Dipton in north west Durham will mean the loss of the site of historic bell pits.
A bell pit was a primitive method of mining coal where the coal lies near the surface on flat land. A shaft is sunk to reach the coal which is then excavated by miners transported in by means of a winch and removed by means of a bucket (much like a well). It gets its name because in cross section it resembles a bell.
Typically, no supports are used and mining continues outward until the mine becomes too dangerous (or collapses) at which point another mine is started, often in close proximity.
This type of mine was in frequent use starting as early as the 14th Century and a few continued in use until after World War One in the region around Ford, Northumberland. Bell pits often flooded due to a lack of a drainage system. This, plus the lack of supports and the likelihood for collapse, means remains of bell pits are hard to identify nowadays.
But Mr Marrs, 52, of Granville Terrace, Annfield Plain, near Stanley, County Durham, former chief executive of the now defunct Durham City Council, explained: “On this site at Bradley there is a wonderful pepperpot of bell pits dating back to the 18th Century and possibly even earlier.
“They are a fantastic educational tool and it would be a crime if they were to disappear.
“I have taken hundreds of people on guided walks to look at them, I believe they should be a listed monument and a must for schoolchildren to visit. But UK Coal don’t seem to care. They just want to flatten the entire area.”
UK Coal has already successfully applied for planning permission to create three habitat ponds for great crested newts next to the proposed site.
The company, which plans to extract 556,000 tonnes from the Bradley site, an area of 73,000 square metres in the Derwent Valley, was hindered by the presence of the tiny animals on a pond in the area where it wants to mine.
A spokesman said: “This application is still going through the planning process with Durham County Council. We have had approval to create three settling ponds (near to the site) and will be starting work this spring. The ponds will ecologically enhance the environment by attracting wildlife into the ponds.
“This is something we have taken upon ourselves to do.”
Journo