Community says no to coal mining in the uk

Here is another example, this time in England, of communities saying no to mining.

Campaign group Defend Dewley Hill were successful in stopping Banks Group’s application to extract 800,000 tonnes of coal and 400,000 tonnes of fireclay from the outskirts of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in the North East of England. The virtual planning committee unanimously decided to go with the Planning Officer’s recommendation and reject the application.

Defend Dewley Hill, one of the groups the Coal Action Network has been working with closely, have been incredible in their ability to raise objections from local people via letter and petitions as well as speaking in the planning hearing.

The Planning Officer’s report recommended refusal citing nine contraventions of relevant local plans, a breach of the Northumberland minerals plan and paragraph 211a of the UK’s National Planning Policy Framework.

Local resident Jude Campbell said, “Defend Dewley Hill urge the planning committee to reject this application which would destroy our green belt space and bring no local, regional or national benefit. We want to continue to enjoy birdsong not blasting, the tranquillity of nature not the vibration and thunderous noise of machinery and spring lambs being born in our fields not vast chasms of choking dust being borne into the air we breathe.”

There’s an article on our website https://www.coalaction.org.uk/2020/12/18/dewley-hill-saved-from-opencast/ and various one soon to be released in the media.

This is the third planning application that Banks Group has had rejected this year relating to opencast coal mines in the UK. Firstly an extension in the Pont Valley, was rejected by Durham council in July, in September the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick refused the application at Druridge Bay and now Dewley Hill has been saved from opencast mining. There are now no applications to extract coal by opencast methods in the UK.