What is ATH really after?

Yesterday NANC went to Pinxton.  Pinxton is in Derbyshire and is the village where processing of the coal from the Langton Colliery spoil heap will take place.  They are not happy about it, mainly because of the number of lorries that will be thundering through the narrow streets of Pinxton for the next 2 years.  But what they told us has got us even more worried than we were before.  Many of the people living in Pinxton are former miners and many of them worked at Langton and they told us information about the place that is not on the planning application.  Now this needs to be verified and NANC has put in a Freedom of Information request to see if we can find some of the answers.  We were told that the spoil heap used to be much taller than it is at present but following the disaster at Aberfan, it was decreased in size, along with many other spoil heaps around the country, to avoid a smilar disaster as it is across a small road from a farm and farmworkers cottages.  We were also told that at that time there was not much coal in the spoil heap and since that time other investigations have shown that there is in fact not a lot  of coal in that there hill.  So why are ATH so keen to recover the coal?  It would appear that there could be a seam of coal from the original colliery underneath the spoil heap.  As I said, we have to determine if this is true, but if it is true then are we looking at the plan to recover coal from the spoil heap being a stalking horse with the real prize undergound?

NANC article in Nottingham Evening Post

NANC has had an article published in the online version of the Nottingham Evening Post.  The article is reproduced in full below.

Is this the start of open cast mining in Notts?

 

Later this month the planning committee of Nottinghamshire County Council are due to decide on whether to give permission for the reclamation of coal from the spoil heap at Langton Colliery near Kirkby in Ashfield. 

 

The spoil heap is approximately 25 hectares in area and will, if permission is given, yield less than half a million tonnes of coal.  The process will last 3 years and will only provide 35 jobs during that time with no promise of jobs when the extraction is complete.  In addition there will be over 50 HGV journeys through the nearby village of Pinxton in Derbyshire every day for the course of the excavation as the treated coal is transported to coal fired power stations in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.  The extraction of coal at Langton may be called reclamation but it is open cast mining in all but name.  All new coal in the UK is now obtained by open cast mining.  Giant earth movers and power shovels remove the coal before it is loaded onto trucks to be processed at Pinxton.  All this work will cause noise and dust as well as traffic congestion which will affect the local residents.

 

Notts Against New Coal (NANC) is a new group set up to oppose the use of coal in electricity generation.  We are opposing this application on climate change grounds since coal is the most polluting fossil fuel there is and should be left underground.  Coal is a dirty fuel from the moment it is dug up to the moment it is burned.  NANC believe that giving permission for this application will cause unacceptable environmental effects both in terms of climate change and local impacts.  It could also signal the start of open cast mining in Nottinghamshire.

 

NANC are demanding that the local MP, Geoff Hoon, pushes Gordon Brown to ditch plans for new coal fired power stations and to start investing in energy efficiency, renewable energy and energy reduction.  That way we can tackle climate change and kick start real job opportunities in the renewables sector in Nottinghamshire. 

 

Coal is used mainly for electricity generation and in 2005 coal fired power stations were responsible for over ¼ of the total carbon dioxide emissions of the UK.  The single greatest threat to the climate is down to burning coal and coal fired power generation is responsible for almost half of the current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.  The Prime Minister recently committed the UK to targets which will require us to produce 20% of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.  At the moment the Government is in the process of deciding whether to give the go-ahead for 2 new coal fired power stations in Kent.  Following on from this are seven potential new coal fired power stations in the pipeline, including one at High Marnham in Nottinghamshire.  NANC will also be opposing this.  Find out more at our blog http://nottsagainstnewcoal.wordpress.com     

 

NANC is working with Climate Action Network Notts (CANN) to inform decision makers and the public about the issues that affect climate change in Nottingham, to oppose climate damaging activities and promote sustainable solutions.

Date for planning committee set

NANC has learned that the date for the application to recover coal from the old Langton colliery spoil heap has been set.  It will go before the planning committee on Tuesday 30th September.  The meeting takes place in the Council Chamber of Notts CC at 10.30am.  NANC intend to speak against the application at the meeting.

View from the top of the spoil heap

Letter to the planning officer of Notts CC to register your objections to the application

Mr Jonathan Smith

Development Control

Trent Bridge House

Fox Road

West Bridgford

NG2 6BJ

 

 

Dear Mr Smith

 

RE: Proposed former Langton Colliery spoil heap coal

Recovery and reclamation scheme

 

I wish to register my objection to this scheme. 

 

Reclaiming the coal from this spoil heap will lead to the burning of even more coal in the dirtiest and most outdated form of energy generation there is.   The burning of coal now and in the past is responsible for over 50% of the current carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.  We need to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide not add to it.

  

I therefore urge you most strongly to reject this application and instead support more clean, sustainable and renewable sources of electricity generation.

 

Yours sincerely

Saying “No” to opencast mining and new coal-fired power stations in Nottinghamshire

A new opencast mine at Langton Colliery spoil-heap, near Pinxton, Derbyshire, is being proposed and is part of a wider government policy to reduce the UK’s reliance on imported coal in order to keep our coal-fired power stations running. We are opposing the planning application of this opencast mine because we feel that to keep burning coal and releasing yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is simply ignoring the real issue: climate change.

Climate change is real, it is happening and the historical burning of coal has had a huge part to play in it. By saying “no to new coal” we are asking the government, local and national, to start thinking of ways to reduce climate change, not increase and accelerate it.