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UK Coal going to keep it's promises

Steve Leary | 30.07.2013 14:57 | Ecology | Energy Crisis | Social Struggles

Is the new version of UK Coal, UK Coal Production going to honour the promises that were entered into to enable it to mine coal? This press release gives details of the opencast sites which might not be fully restored should the Company renenge on its promises. In addition, it is suggested that promised community benefits are at risk as well


THE LOOSE ANTI OPENCAST NETWORK

LAON PR 2013 – 30 30/7/13

ARE THE PROMISES MADE TO THESE COMMUNITIES GOING TO BE HONOURED BY UK COAL?

Much recent media attention was recently devoted to the consequences of UK Coal Mine Holdings and UK Coal Operations going into administration, the consequent loss of jobs following the closure of Daw Mill and the saving of 2,000 mining jobs.

However there are still unresolved issues arising from this bankruptcy, and communities across England are still waiting to see what the consequences of saving these jobs will be on communities which bear the brunt of having to play host to the often unwelcome spectacle of opencast mining, after the Pontefract and Castleford Express ran a small news item on the 15th July entitled ‘RSPB closes nature park visitor centre’

This report indicated that work to fully restore the St Aidan’s opencast site in preparation to it being handed over to Leeds Council had come to a halt since the two companies collapsed and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was expressing concern. The news item said;

“The RSPB has temporarily closed its visitor centre and car park at the new St Aidan’s Nature Park after landowner UK Coal went into administration
The park will remain open, but Peter Robinson, RSPB regional director, said it took the decision as a result of legal uncertainty.

He said: “The footpaths and bridleways will remain open, and RSPB staff and volunteers will continue to be present on site, to ensure visitors are still able to enjoy this wonderful place.
“The RSPB has no legal tenure and cannot continue to operate the car park and visitor centre on the basis of goodwill alone.
“UK Coal, the current landowner, went into administration on July 9 which has created significant uncertainty over when the handover to Leeds City Council, and the subsequent lease to the RSPB, will be in place.

To gain planning permission to surface mine for coal, UK Coal entered into agreements to restore the land after the coal had been quarried and then manage the land for up to ten years afterwards. For those sites currently being worked, they are meant to generate sometimes substantial benefits for the local community as well.

This means that the Wakefield and Castleford Express story does not just affect the St Aidan’s site in Leeds, many more sites could be affected, if UK Coal is allowed to behave in the same way elsewhere. The Loose Anti Opencast Network suggests that a further 19 sites are in the post restoration stage, in various locations, Ayrshire, Barnsley, Bolton, Co Durham, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northumberland, Rotherham, and Wakefield, In addition, UK Coal are currently working six more sites in Co Durham, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northumberland and Telford in Shropshire.

Because of the uncertainty created by the St Aidan’s story, the Loose Anti Opencast Network wrote a letter to Kevin McCullough, Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed UK Coal Production, on Monday 22/7/13, asking him among other issues, the following:

“ It is with some alarm that members of groups included in the Loose Anti Opencast Network read about doubts being expressed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds over whether the consequence of the Pre Packaged Administration deal, which has resulted in the creation of UK Coal Production Ltd, will result in any applications to Local Authorities to vary any of the planning conditions to lower the cost of site land management post restoration, site restoration post coal extraction or the cost of any community benefits agreed on when planning permission was granted at the sites for which the Company is responsible.”

The letter went on to say

“......I do hope you can understand why such a news item causes alarm. So far there has not been any information provided by your Company on whether it will honour these obligations it has entered into in full. Local groups who are part of our network and who face current and prospective opencast applications from your Company at the following sites; Bradley, Hoodsclose, Deanfield, Marley Hill and Great Oak and possibly Minorca would view any attempt to review such obligations as evidence that the word of UK Coal Production could not be trusted and that this is further evidence, that despite this latest reorganisation, financial problems still beset the Company.......”

As yet, even though an acknowledgement of the emailed letter being received was requested and there has been a follow-up phone call as yet UK Coal Production has not replied to the letter.

Steve Leary, for the Loose Anti Opencast Network said

There is a lot of unfinished business here. The UK’s Coal Industry is going through a crisis at present caused by low coal prices. This has meant that in Scotland, two major opencast companies have recently gone bust, leaving the Scottish Taxpayer looking at a bill last estimated to be £74m to restore opencast sites. We do not want to face the same prospect in England.

When seeking planning permission for new sites UK Coal treats the local communities as ‘Stakeholders’ who will have a financial interest in the site should planning approval be given. That relationship does not end if one company is succeeded by another – the financial interest is still there, long after the coal has been extracted. It’s time UK Coal Production came clean on whether it will or will not honour the commitments it has made to all 26 sites to restore them, manage them afterwards and provide the community benefits promised “
----------------------------------------------------
SEE THE APPENDIX FOR THE LIST OF SITES AFFECTED.

INFORMATION ABOUT LAON

The Loose Anti-Opencast Network (LAON) has been in existence since 2009. It is a UK and Northern Ireland wide network of local community groups opposed to local opencast mine proposals / operations. It functions as a medium through which to oppose open cast mine applications and works with groups where local people feel that such a development is inappropriate.

CONTACTING LAON

Steve Leary, LAON’S Co-ordinator, at  infoatlaon@yahoo.com


You can now follow LAON on twitter @  http://twitter.com/seftonchase

GROUPS IN THE LOOSE ANTI OPENCAST NETWORK:

Coal Action Network Whittonstall Action Group, Northumberland, North Pennine Protection Group, Northumberland, Pont Valley Network, Co Durham, Pittington Residents Group Co Durham, Newton Lane Action Group, Leeds, Residents Against Birklands, Gatshead Cowley Residents Group, Sheffield , Skelmansthorpe Action Group, Kirklees Shortwood Farm Opencast Opposition, Nottinghamshire, West Hallum Environment Group, Derbyshire, Smalley Action Group, Derbyshire, Hilltop Action Group, Derbyshire, , Minorca Opencast Protest Group, Leicestershire, Campaign Against Great Oak Opencast, Staffordshire, Stop Opencast at Sharlston, Wakefield and Alumwell Action Group. Walsall Just Say No to Lignite, N Ireland, Coal Action Scotland Saline Parish Hub, Fife Stop Cauldhall Opencast, Midlothian Green Valleys Alliance, Rhymney Valley Merthyr Tydfil Anti Opencast Campaign, Merthyr Tydfil Llwdgoed Action, Merthyr Tydfil and Varteg Protest, Torfaen

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX 1 SITES SUSPECTED AS STILL BEING IN THE POST RESTORATIVE LAND MANAGEMENT STAGE IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS:

AYRSHIRE
BURNFOOT MOOR

BARNSLEY
FERRY MOOR LOW BAROUGH

BOLTON
CUTACRE

Co DURHAM
ELDON DEEP SOUTHFIELD STONY HEAP

DERBYSHIRE
ARKWRIGHT FORGE AND MONUMENT PARK BROOK SHIPLEY WEST

LEEDS
ST. AIDANS

LEICESTERSHIRE
HICKS LODGE LONG MOOR

NORTHUMBERLAND
MAIDENS HALL STOBSWOOD

ROTHERHAM
ORGREAVE

WAKEFIELD
GRANGE FARM MOORHOUSE

This list of sites has been derived from records kept by the British Geological survey and past annual reports of UK Coal plc. It does not claim to be a definitive list. All the local authorities listed may be creditors who can lodge claims with the liquidators of UK Coal Mine Holdings and UK Coal Operations.

In addition, coal extraction is still going on at the following sites:

Co Durham - Park Wall North and Potland Burn
Derbyshire - Lodge House
Leicestershire - Minorca
Northumberland - Butterwell
Telford - Huntington Lane

Steve Leary
- e-mail: infoat laon@ yahoo.com

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Re-tool the entire industrial Revolution to Renewables.

30.07.2013 20:08

Coal, gas, oil, and atomic energy is destroying the ecological balances of the organic web-of-life on planet Earth. Therefore the last Forty-nine years of green ecological revolution has brought into being the hi and low tech tools to put in place wind, tidal, and solar power that transforms to electricity and is more power than all societies can use. No more blackouts.

This non-pollution solution if given freely in natures kinder laws and provides work for all and forever more. This scientific knowledge is especially important as forty percent of the world's oxygen supply in the atmosphere has been burned out to cabon-dioxide and we cannot live on the CO2 replacement. Such is that case that the parts per billion of Carbon-dioxide is measured that it must not excede 350 parts per billion for safety.

The fact is the burning of fossil fuels has now reached 400 parts per billion, and that means globally that it is not safe space atmosphere, and the planet is now in a fail safe mode.

Just maintaining the first industrial revolution will speed up the burn out of the remaining oxygen, as mother nature cannot keep up with the burn out to carbon-dioxide any more and the oxygen is literally dissapearing throughout the atmosphere.

Projects such as Canada's Alberta Tar Sands, which in area is the size of Florida State, will only speed up the burn out of the rest of the oxygen. It is not good for all air breathing animals and plants to run out of oxygen. Extinquishment is not liberation. These so-called energy sources that destroy the planets livability must be stopped.

Without changing motivation from fossil fuels it is inevitable that the remaining oxygen will burn out changing the present 'fail safe mode' of planet earth to one of NO RETURN mode.

Workers of the world unite!! End pollution wars, not endless wars for more and more pollution. Ye yet have a world to win!!

Union Jack


some corrections

30.07.2013 22:50

>> The fact is the burning of fossil fuels has now reached 400 parts per billion, and that means globally that it is not safe space atmosphere, and the planet is now in a fail safe mode.

Im amazed how many mistakes are in so few words:

I assume you mean 400 parts per billion of CO2?
Its actually 400 parts per million not billion

I have no idea what "not safe space atmosphere" is. The atmosphere is safe. You will come to no harm breathing it. In fact, it is likely that you will die if you do not.

The planet is not in "fail safe" mode!!!
Fail safe mode means that if something fails then it will not cause harm.
Ie it will fail safely. If the planet fails, then it WILL cause harm

So, fail-safe is a gross inaccurate phrase that may sound cool but is totally wrong.
I would be better to say that the planet is deteriorating due to pollution from human activity.,

F-


ooops

30.07.2013 22:54

>> Just maintaining the first industrial revolution will speed up the burn out of the remaining oxygen, as mother nature cannot keep up with the burn out to carbon-dioxide any more and the oxygen is literally dissapearing throughout the atmosphere.

That is an utter pile of crock. O2 is not "dissapearing"
If you must post inaccurate drivel, take some time out to consider what damage it is doing to your cause. Because I can't be bothered to read anything else you write without thinking: this guy knows fuck all about science

meddly


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