UK Coal sites get the green light

Company gets ready for coaling at two new surface mining schemes in Northumberland and Derbyshire

PRODUCTION is about to start on two new surface mines that will employ more than 130 people and produce enough coal to meet the power needs of nearly one and a half million homes for a year.

The biggest of the schemes is in Northumberland where preparation work is under way for a New Year start at UK Coal’s 41ha Butterwell surface mine to extract more than 1 million tonnes of coal and up to 200,000 tonnes of fireclay and brick shale.

Employing 84 people, it will take four-and-a-half years to extract the coal and fireclay, and restore the site to farmland.

‘The application ticked all the planning boxes,’ commented project manager Peter Wood. ‘It will support local businesses and result in the demolition and removal of the disused Butterwell coal despatch point – an industrial complex where local surface-mined coal was stockpiled and processed for decades.

‘Butterwell was extensively opencasted from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, when it was Europe’s largest surface mine, and this scheme aims to recover the remaining coal reserves and reclaim the area.’

The site mainly comprises a long-established coal stock yard and facilities associated with a despatch point, as well as a derelict drift mine and farmland between the villages of Linton, Ulgham and Longhirst.

An existing rail structure is being retained to allow coal to be loaded on to trains at a newly constructed rail-loading pad in a private siding linked to the main rail network.

As well as providing a boost for the local economy with the creation of jobs and a requirement for local goods and services, the site has a £100,000 Community Fund to support local worthy causes.

Meanwhile, Derbyshire County Council have given UK Coal permission to extend the 122ha Lodge House surface mine by a further 78ha, subject to a total of 51 conditions covering the operation and restoration of the site, designed to protect the environment and those living in the vicinity.

According to UK Coal, the proposed scheme, near Smalley, will bring about a number of benefits, ranging from the retention of jobs and local expenditure, to improvements in future land quality and ecological enhancement, as well as new facilities with disabled access for Shipley Country Park’s Visitors Centre.

A total of 748,000 tonnes of coal will be mined at the site in addition to the 1 million tonnes already extracted and the land will be restored to mainly agricultural use with seasonal ponds and marshland by October 2014.

A site liaison committee will administer a £250,000 Community Fund, payments from which will be available from the commencement of the development. In addition, UK Coal will pay £75,000 to improve Shipley County Park, and £50,000 for highways works in Smalley.

Lodge House site manager Brian Worsley said: ‘We are particularly pleased that the importance of this coal reserve has been recognized, which will also mean the continuation of 48 jobs for the next three years.’