PR 104 6/6/11

DECISION DAY LOOMS FOR MINORCA MINE APPLICATION

Villagers living around a proposed extensive opencast site located in the Heart of the National Forest will soon know the outcome of a long fought campaign to oppose UK Coal’s application to mine on the Minorca site between Measham and Snarestone in Leicestershire. On June 23rd , Leicestershire County Council will make its decision on the application.

Under the umbrella of the Minorca Opencast Protest Group, 300 residents of Meashm, Snarestone, Swepstone and Newton Burgoland have been campaigning against the proposals since September 2008, when UK Coal first announced their intention to reapply for planning permission to extract coal on a site where they were refused permission in 1995. In that time their campaign has gathered the support of North West Leicestershire District Council and the local Parish Councils of Swepstone with Newton Burgoland, Snarestone and Measham who all have lodged objections to the application.

It will not be known what the Officer’s Report going to the Council will recommend, until it is published on June 15th. Regardless of whether it recommends approval or rejection, MOPG will be organising a lobby at County Hall in Glenfield on the 23rd.
Said Steve Leary, speaking for the Minorca Opencast Protest Group

“We’ve been waiting for a long time for this date. We stand by all the objections we have lodged with Leicestershire County Council and representative from MOPG will be speaking on these reasons for rejecting this application on Thursday 23rd June.

UK Coal are still presenting this as a one off exercise, promising site restoration after five years, but we know what has happened elsewhere with the Company coming back in a few years to ask to extend the size of the site and the time it will take to work it as is currently happening at the Lodge House site in Derbyshire.

Then there is the question mark hanging over UK Coal’s shaky financial state, over £220m in debt, selling off land to reduce the debt and members of its pension fund being advised earlier this year about what would happen to the their pension if the Company became insolvent. We could be left with a big hole and the prospect of having a derelict site on our doorstep for years into the future. Currently, in Cumbria, local residents near Whitehaven know all about what can happen when a site operator goes bankrupt. Along come a waste company and offers to restore the site – as long as low radio-active waste can be stored there. (1)

The only way of stopping local people from facing this risk is to join with us. Firstly look at our web sites for a pro-forma letter which we will publish after we have read the Officer’s Report on the 15th June. We will be asking you to forward this to the County Council. Secondly, help to lobby Leicestershire County Councillors to oppose this application at the meeting at Leicestershire County Hall in Glenfield on the afternoon of 23rd June starting at 12.45 pm.

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Reference

‘MP opposes Keekle Head for nuclear waste site’, 24/2/11, The Whitehaven News @
 http://www.whitehaven-news.co.uk/news/mp-opposes-keekle-head-for-nuclear-waste-site-1.676386?referrerPath=home

Copeland’s MP James Reed speaks out against plans for the derelict Keekle Head site to be used as a repository for low level radio active waste. Action should be taken he says to chase down the former site owners and get them tom pay reparations to restore the site.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PRESS RELEASE CONTACT:
Steve Leary,
tel 05601 767981
 steve46leary@googlemail.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MOPG PLEASE GO TO:
 http://www.mopg.co.uk or
 http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/measham/minorca-protest.html

FOLLOW NEWS ABOUT MOPG and UK COAL on TWITTER by logging on to  http://twitter.com/seftonchase