Loose Anti-Opencast Network (LAON) press release
10 July 2013
News that 2,000 jobs have been saved and that pensions have been protected by the rescue operation mounted around the collapse of UK Coal Mining and UK Coal Operations, has so far been praised on all sides as a job well done under the circumstances.
However this snatching of a victory from a defeat has not been greeted with joy by others. They can now only look forwards to more years of misery.
If the re-establish company, UK Coal Mine Holdings, is to either maintain its current level of production or even increase it, it can only do this, we suspect, by gaining new planning permissions for opencast mines across many areas of England.
The opencast mining activity being carried out by this Company is already disturbing the daily lives of those living close to the six working mines, Park Wall North in Co Durham, Minorca in Leicestershire, Butterwell and Potland Burn in Northumberland, Lodge House in Derbyshure and Huntington Lane in Telford.
Work on applying for planning approval for another 5 mines is already underway. These sites are:
- Bradley in Co Durham
- Hoodsclose in Northumberland
- Deansfield in Wakefield
- Shortwood Farm in Nottinghamshire and
- Great Oak in Staffordshire