My opposition to open cast coal mining at Dewley Hill

L-R: Jos Forester-Melville, Eileen Killen, and my constituent Helen Crowe at Dewley Hill 

I cannot support plans for a new open cast coal mine on our green belt land at Dewley Hill between Ponteland and Heddon. Details of my engagement with the local community and my letter to Newcastle City Council are set out below.

In the many years I have done this job as a candidate, and then as the MP, there have been 2 previous applications for local open cast mines in the Hexham Constituency. I was very involved in opposing both the application at Halton Lea Gate in the west, and Whitonstall more recently.

At Halton Lea Gate, myself and Councillor Ian Hutchinson have been working with the local community since 2008:

You can read my old blog post on this here and the article in relation to the second application in The Journal here. 

The open cast proposal at Whittonstall went to a public meeting at Snods Edge Village Hall before being rejected by the Northumberland County Council: You can read my blog post on this here and the subsequent article in The Journal here. 

For an overview of open cast mining locally, my wider views on this, and the need for companies to engage locally, and the planning process generally on open cast (find out more by clicking here). 

The Dewley Hill site really matters. It is on the greenbelt border between Newcastle and Northumberland. This is green belt that we have fought long and hard to protect over many years: whether that is the titanic struggle against Lugano at Birney Hill next to Dewley Hill, or at Clickenim Farm.

I recently met with members of the Defend Dewley Hill Action Group to discuss their planning, environmental and infrastructure concerns. They are rightly concerned that this is the wrong approach when we are doing so much as a country to tackle Climate Change. You can watch my video with local campaigner Helen Crowe below:



The site - adjacent to the B6323, and the A69 - and literally down the hill from the Birney Hill site, is currently green belt / green field land. The National Planning Policy Framework, the legislation which controls planning permits, says that only in very special circumstances can green belt be built on, or opencast coal extraction accepted.

If the opencast coal mine was to go ahead, it would be up to 67 meters deep, covering 50 hectares. It would lead to up to three years of coal mining, and see more than 100 lorries in and out of the site each day between 7am and 10pm to extract 800,000 tonnes of coal. Such an application has consequences on the local community.

The UK leads the world in tackling Climate Change, and the days of coal are numbered. Rather than new opencast mining of fossil fuels on the greenbelt, we need a cleaner, greener future increasingly powered by renewable energy.

It should also be noted that two previous planning applications at the site were rejected; one in 1994, and another in 1999.

I have written to Cllr Nick Forbes, Leader of Newcastle City Council, to voice my concerns and ask the Council to block this proposal. You can read a copy of my letter below:



As a country the UK has cut emissions by 40% since 1990, and we remain firmly on track to meet the target set by the Climate Change Act of 2008, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Ultimately, however, the goal remains net zero carbon emissions.

In the Spring Statement last month, the government announced a series of measures to help tackle Climate Change. Most notably, a plan to stop fossil-fuel heating systems such as gas boilers being built in new houses from 2025. This is part of plans to cut the use of fossil fuels, with plans for the UK's remaining coal fired power stations to be shut by 2025.

If you want to find out more on what the government is doing to combat and address climate change and how the UK is leading the way, and more details of my approach go here:

For my part, I do not want to see a new opencast mine casting a shadow on our local communities and taking away the green belt between urban Newcastle and the Northumberland border at Ponteland. This would be bad planning policy, bad for our local environment, and the wrong approach to Climate Change.

If you object, as I do, have your say by April 20th (That's this Friday!) by clicking here. 

I accept some constituents are in favour. If they are in favour and want to have their say, then they should also make their views known. Newcastle City Council will consider the application in due course.   

Energy Bill - thoughts on a speech?

In 2 weeks parliament is debating the Energy Bill, and I am inviting contributions on the content of my speech on this issue. I can think of few more important Bills going through the parliament on a multitude of levels. It addresses national issues of huge importance, and local issues that matter tremendously to the local people I try to represent in Northumberland.
On the one hand is government's fundamental obligation to keep the lights on.
On the other is our desire to tackle climate change.
Whilst we have to acknowledge that all governments have to address declining oil reserves, the legacy that comes with nuclear power, the carbon impact of coal, the innate difficulties of fracking and the unintended consequences of using all our trees for biomass plants.
Balance that with our upset in rural Northumberland that we have random applications for wind farms that are, at best, inefficient and, at worst, an expensive eye sore.
Talk to the miners and there are the arguments from local Labour MPs that we need a return to more coal mining, whilst the citizens of Whittonstall and Halton Lea Gate would disagree.
Add in the problems of the rising prices of the most important energy of all - the petrol / oil and diesel that runs our vehicles and heats our homes... not to mention the thousands of my constituents who are off grid and relying on unregulated LPG.
Who would be the lead energy minister? In cabinet this is Ed Davey. He is a decent man, doing a very difficult job.

Some of you will have read previous speeches I have given on this issue: a full list of the speeches on fuel poverty, biomass, the actions of the heating oil companies, fracking, my clashes with Caroline Flint, Labour's shadow energy minister, LPG, wind farms, the weakness of the OFT, issues in rural Northumberland, off grid heating, open cast and lots more are set out on They work for you:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?s=%28%28energy%29%29+&pid=24962&p=1

But I have decided to take a different approach to the speech in a couple of weeks time.
I am meeting on Friday 24th with a number of the representatives of the heating oil buying groups in Northumberland to try and get their specific input. Bear in mind that Mike Murray and Lauren Langton have already become the unofficial key advisers to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee and recently Lauren met with the Energy Minister, Michael Fallon.
I have specifically asked them to give me information - both for onward transfer to the Ministers and the OFT, and also for potential inclusion in an energy bill speech.
As always the creation of a 6-10 minute speech is a composite effort of a variety of influences but I welcome the input of constituents one and all. My email, as everyone I hope knows, is guy.opperman.mp@parliament.uk

Details on the Energy Bill can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/series/energy-bill

 

Whittonstall Open Cast Mine Meeting is tonight!

6pm in Snods Edge will see the public meeting on UK Coal's proposed application for open cast coal mining. I have received a slip from the House of Commons to ensure I can be there. I would urge anyone interested in green belt development, open cast mining and the cumulative impact of energy policy on this area to attend. I have written at length on this application before on this blog, and spoken about it in the House of Commons, most recently on the 20/12/12 in respect of the lack of a County Council minerals plan. I have met repeatedly with the local community from 2009 onwards in local surgeries, in a long meeting in the local pub and in people's houses.
Whilst I will go with an open mind to the meeting, and listen to what is said tomorrow night by all parties - and it is clear that there are some people in the community in favour of the application, and campaigning for the application - everything I have seen and heard, thus far, indicates that the vast majority of the population locally are against this application.
For my part I am satisfied that there are potential legitimate objections based upon planning grounds, concerns as to the viability and intentions of the applicant, further concerns as to the impact on the green belt, and a real issue as to whether this is sustainable and appropriate development, given the two contrasting decisions by inspectors in relation to the Bradley decision [planning refused] and the Halton Lea Gate decision [planning granted].

Whittonstall open cast mine

Once again there is the prospect of another huge open cast mine in the constituency; this time it is between Stocksfield and Whittonstall. I have met the one of the locals / lead protesters yesterday and got more of an understanding of the scale of the problem both from him and the visit I did on thursday. This is a decision ultimately for Northumberland Unitary Council, which is run by the liberals
The papers have reported it in full.

The village is beautiful with a school one side of the road and a pub on the other - I could not make the public meeting last week but the villagers clearly do not want a mine on their doorstep - with everything that it involves.

The Halton Lea Gate open cast mine [see earlier posts in the winter of 2008 and spring 2009] will be up for a decision this winter ... which should give us an understanding of what the liberal council's view is of this sort of issue - as they now have two such applications to deal with in short succession.