Two new opencast coal mines in northern England could begin work this spring, unless the government decides to intervene, despite recent affirmations that the UK will end coal use for electricity by 2025.
This year, following the UK governments joint launch of the ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’, the mining company Banks Group announced their intention to begin mining at a new site, ‘Bradley’ near Dipton and Leadgate in County Durham. Banks are also hoping that the Secretary of State will allow them to mine at Highthorn next to Druridge Bay in Northumberland.
Today, 25 residents from County Durham, the national campaign group Coal Action Network, Pont Valley Network, Derwent Valley Protection Society, and the Burnopfield Environmental Awareness Movement appealed to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, in a letter [Download letter] urging him to use his powers under the Town and Country Planning Act [1] to revoke Banks’ ‘Bradley’ permit.
The permit to mine at Bradley was granted in 2015 prior to the 2017 government commitment to a 2025 coal phase-out.[2] Permission was granted to UK Coal, a now liquidated coal company.
Local MP Laura Pidcock says, “I have requested a meeting with the Secretary of State because I am concerned on behalf of the local community at the environmental and social impacts of this mine. There is a strong local campaign that has worked very hard to keep the area free of the impacts of open cast coal mining.”
Banks Group also await the outcome of a decision from Sajid Javid about the controversial mine planned for Druridge Bay, Northumberland, due to be decided by early March.[3]
Anne Harris, of the Coal Action Network, said ‘The 2015 Paris Agreement and the sharp decline in coal use this year indicate there is no long-term future for coal. If it fails to intervene in these projects, the government will allow local peoples’ health and ecology to be needlessly and permanently damaged, and risk its reputation as an international leader in “Powering Past Coal”.’
In April 2017, the UK saw its first coal-free day[4] and coal use in the UK has dropped to 7% of the UK’s energy mix compared with 30% in 2014[5]. In the past month, two coal-fired power stations, Eggborough and Kilroot, have announced closure due to changing market conditions for coal.[6]
Climate change minister Claire Perry jointly launched the international ‘Powering Past Coal Alliance’ with Canada in November 2017, ‘to lead the rest of the world in committing to an end to unabated coal power’.[7]
Pitch Wilson, local resident and Secretary of a community group called “Derwent Valley Protection Society’ said, “For 50 years we have battled to save the Derwent valley, against ten appeals by mining companies, which were dismissed as each inspector said the environment is more important than the need for coal, even during miners strike and the oil crisis in the 70s.”
Banks Group argue the site will help to meet a ‘continuing high customer demand’ for coal and have offered 10 pence per tonne to a community fund.[8]
Thomas Davison, 28-year-old a resident living 300 metres away from the proposed opencast site said; “The return offered by Banks will not come close to balancing the lasting damage that will be done here. Their desire to extract 550,000 tonnes of coal is driven by nothing more than profit and not at all by a genuine need for energy. We have moved onto other forms of cleaner energy for the good of our global climate. So why is it worth harming the local wildlife and the local economy for one last money grab?”
There are three further opencast applications at various stages of the planning progress, which are expected to be contingent on the Secretary of State’s decisions regarding Bradley and Druridge; ‘Hilltop’ (Provectus), Nant Llesg (Miller Argent) and Dewley Hill (Banks Group). Last week it was learned that the mining company Hargreaves plan to work the permit on their County Durham site, ‘Field House’ in Spring 2018.
Residents near to the proposed sites have opposed the projects the grounds of negative health impacts associated with opencast mining, such as asthma and respiratory problems, the impact on local ecology, and climate change.
[1] Section 97-100 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/8/section/100
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LOCATION: The event will be taking place in the Dipton Scout and Guide Group on 12 Front Street Dipton, and nearby public land. Nearest bus stop, Red Lion, Dipton.
Shut Your Coal Hole warmly invites you to join us in beautiful rural County Durham for a few days of skill sharing and workshops about outdoor life and resistance techniques to protect this area from a new opencast coal mine. From mass catering to foraging wild foods, from land defence to climbing trees and everything between; come and learn new skills, meet new people including locals residents and share your experiences with others.
The problem
Banks Group thinks that it is going to start the first new coal mine in the UK since the government started talking about phasing-out coal at Bradley this spring. We’ve almost run out of options to stop this mine other than direct action.
Banks Group has until the 3rd June this year to start mining at Bradley and then 27 months to extract 550,000 tonnes of coal.For more info on the history of this site see this post.
Whose coming?
Shut Your Coal Hole be joined by experienced activists from the Hambacher forest occupation, Coal Action Network, international coal campaigners and the successful Coal Action Scotland campaigns.
This skillshare will be a safe, inclusive and participatory environment for learning new, interesting and transferable skills and is open to people of all abilities and experiences. Beds available at the accommodation and inside and outside activities. The skillshare will be a creative melting pot of ideas and techniques to sustain life and resist oppression (however it manifests itself).
Location
The event will be taking place in the Dipton Scout and Guide Group on 12 Front Street Dipton, and nearby public land. Nearest bus stop, Red Lion, Dipton.
What to bring
sleeping bag and mat, head torch, good footwear for rough ground, warm clothes, waterproofs, towel, campaign materials (if you have them), your mates, passion and burning rage. There are beds but there may not be enough for everyone.
Timetable
Starting at 10.30am on Monday 26th, 9.30am on Tuesday to Thursday.
There’s still slots available if you want to run a workshop, please get in touch. info@coalaction.org.uk
The skillshare will finish with an awesome gig on Wednesday 28th February and clearing up on Thursday 1st March.
Location. The skillshare will take place in the centre of the village of Dipton. We will release the exact location the weekend before the camp, (so that Banks don’t try and pressure them not to host us).The village is not that big, so finding out at the last minute shouldn’t affect your transport plans.
Transport The nearest train station is Durham. There are regular buses from Newcastle (X70 and 6A) and Durham (16 and 16A) and we will run additional shuttle buses if needed. The nearest bus stop is Red Lion, Dipton.
There are a limited number of spaces available in a minibus between the Earth First Winter Moot in Sheffield the weekend before and the camp, with over night accommodation. It will then return to Sheffield on the 1st February by 6.30pm. You must book this, by emailing info@coalaction.org.uk
How to stay in touch
Check this page or our facebook and twitter to receive updates as they happen and feel free to contact us with any suggestions/requirements/questions you may have contact info@coalaction.org.uk
Banks Group intend to opencast coal mine at Bradley this spring
Banks Group plan to start a new 550,000 tonnes coal mine at Bradley in the Pont Valley, County Durham.
The site is home to red kites, badgers, bats, great crested newts, common blue butterfly, barn owls as well as less obvious but equally vital plants and fungi.
Planning permission was originally granted on the 3rd June 2015 to the now liquidated UK Coal. The site is currently agricultural land in between Dipton and Leadgate, Durham, UK. This is a highly contested site with really strong and well orchestrated opposition from local people.
Banks Group currently operate Shotton and Brenkley Lane opencast coal mines in Northumberland. England’s largest opencast coal mine Shotton is due to close this year. It is awaiting a decision by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, on its controversial application to mine at Highthorn on Druridge Bay in Northumberland. The decision on the Highthorn application is due by March 4th 2018.
Shotton opencast October 2015, Matt Ridley’s conscience
The planning permission for the Bradley site runs out on the 3rd June 2018. If work commences they have 27 months during which coal extraction can take place.
Since planning permission was granted the situation with regards to coal and climate change in the UK has altered significantly.
The planning Inspector who approved this application said that the “Within [the National Planning Policy Framework] NPPF, coal is identified as a mineral of local and national importance and one which is necessary to meet society’s needs.”
Since this announcement was made things have changed significantly.
Protest against Banks on the Bradley site
History of the application
The local community have been fighting applications on this site for 50 years. The first application was approved but over turned by the then Secretary of State. UK Coal’s first application was rejected by planners in 1986. In 2001 a second application was rejected. During this period the UK was far more dependent on coal than it is now.
British mining
This application was unanimously rejected in February 2011. The Councillors for Durham Council called UK Coal “thugs,” “vandals” and said they were trying to bribe them with their promises of sorting the local roads.
In Autumn 2011 there was a three week appeal which UK Coal lost. The coal company took this to the High Court in London who said that the decision was perverse and ordered another appeal.
The second appeal happened in Autumn 2014 and lasted three weeks. Both appeals were well attended by local people, tens of whom spoke out against the mine with incredible passion, dedication and knowledge.
The Coal Action Network have been working since local residents against this mine since 2009, including giving evidence at the planning appeals.
Take Action
Banks seems determined to be the last company extracting coal in the UK. It is entirely disregarding the local people and the evidence that there is no need for this coal.
This is not the end of the battle. We are determined that this piece of rural Britain will never be dug up. We need to stand together to protect the livelihoods, families, local history, quality of life, homes, air quality, tranquillity, health,wildlife and ecosystems in this area. Even with planning permission the fight is not over.
Come to our outdoor skillshare 26th Feb to the 1st March in Dipton. We will be skill sharing and running workshops about outdoor life and resistance techniques to protect this area from a new opencast coal mine. From mass catering to foraging wild foods, from land defence to climbing trees and everything between; come and learn new skills, meet new people including locals residents and share your experiences with others.
Last week the government announced its response to the coal phase-out consultation with an overview of how they plan to implement an end to coal by 2025. We look at some of the pros and cons of this plan and whether or not the ‘Powering Past Coal’ rhetoric matches the action…
The top line is that the government have now rejected many pleas to end coal sooner than 2025. For people living with open cast coal mines on their door step, 2025 isn’t soon enough. And for those awaiting a verdict on a new mine, the governments response hasn’t gone nearly as far as it should.
The day before the government response came out, Banks Group declared its intention to start a new open cast coal mine in spring 2018, on land purchased from UK Coal, which had liquidated before the coal-phase out announcement.
The Bradley mine would almost certainly fuel the power stations that the coal phase-out is meant to stop supplying.
A coal phase-out shouldn’t just be about cutting carbon. These mines have devastating long-term impacts on community health and ecosystems, regardless of how long they operate or how they are ‘restored’.
This was yet another coal phase-out publication with no mention of closing open cast coal mines so it’s not clear how the government plan to address this.
Also missing is any mention of restoring the abandoned coal-mines which litter the former coalfields of Scotland and South Wales, continuing to damage and disrupt communities and ecosystems years after coaling has stopped, and there is no reference to what could be done with soon-to-be former power station sites.
The good news is that coal will be excluded from the capacity market auctions for energy that will come online for 2025/2026. So there will be no more government subsidies for coal as back-up power after that date.
What’s disappointing is that coal-fired power stations won’t been taken off the scheme sooner. This will mean four more years of capacity market payments, burning around £500m public money, if past years are anything to go by. Coal should come off the capacity market now.
In addition, the UK government recently argued at an EU-level for subsidies for coal fired power stations to be allowed to continue up until 2035 – missing an opportunity to act on its image as an international leader in phasing out coal.
Whilst it’s good that coal will stop providing back-up power, it means an opening is becoming available for supplying this power to the grid…
You guessed it. Forecasting a ‘need’ for around 7.5 GW of new gas capacity between 2018 and 2025, the government claim that ‘lower carbon forms of energy such as biofuels and gas’ will fill the space left by coal, despite the incredible growth in renewables contribution to the grid in 2017.
Last week SSE, who operate Ferrybridge coal-fired power station announced a plan to convert a unit to gas, while Drax have already stated an intention to convert two units to gas.
Sam Bright, energy lawyer at Client Earth said:
“The government has kept to its commitment to phase- out unabated coal generation by 2025, but we aren’t convinced that this alone merits its claims to global leadership. Not only are other countries imposing more ambitious sunset dates, we are concerned that the door is left wide open for investments in new, long-term gas capacity, locking us into another generation of fossil fuel power. This contradicts the very rationale of the coal phaseout.”
The plan tries to offer reassurance about growth and jobs in a new energy economy. But it does nothing to address the job losses which it admits will occur. It is not enough to say that jobs will be created in renewable energy; this much is obvious by now.
The question is how will power station workers and people all along the coal supply chain benefit from the transition that is already happening? In the original consultation document the only reference to addressing this was, appallingly, improving resources for local job centres; in over a year the ambition for a just transition hasn’t moved on from there.
“A long-held fear has been that power stations will be able to keep burning coal by co-firing with biomass and get subsidies for that in future, too. This is still a risk: power stations can continue to burn coal indefinitely, as long as they co-fire at least 54% biomass in each unit. Biofuels’ net contribution to carbon emissions can often equal that of coal.
Further, the report still suggests that large-scale biomass can be an ok, ‘low carbon’ alternative to coal. So it doesn’t set the right tone on biomass, considering that other countries are looking to the UK for direction on how to approach a coal phase-out.”
– We need to put an end to new open cast coal mines by mobilising against Banks Group.
– At the same time, we’ve got to build a movement against a ‘gas lock-in’, while advocating for alternatives and demand reduction
– To assist this, the government should stop ongoing subsidies for fossil fuels – subsidise renewables instead and radically re-think our demand and the way we use energy in the grid.
– The government need to start listening to the needs of union members and workers who stand to lose from the transition. Those of us campaigning for an end to coal need to set an example by doing that too.
So – while it hasn’t been legislated on yet, it looks like the end of coal is in sight, although not as soon as it should be.
Our actions can still help determine whether or not an end to coal will really help us move away from a high-carbon energy system and provide justice for communities.
This lunch time Santa and his helpers visited the offices of Banks Group in Meadowfield, Durham. Santa left ‘coal’ for Chairmen Harry Banks, as his company are considering mining 520,000 tonnes of coal from Bradley, near Dipton, County Durham [1].
Lisa Wilson, one of Santa’s helpers said “Opencast coal mines destroy local ecosystems and contribute to catastrophic climate change. People living near the Bradley site have fought tirelessly against this application for over thirty years and hoped that the closure of UK coal combined with decreasing UK coal production meant that their area was safe. We are determined to stop any new UK coal mines from being started.”
Durham County Council have said that Banks Group will decide in early January whether it will try to operate this site. Planning permission lapses on the 3rd June 2018. [2] Santa and his helpers vowed that this area will be protected.
Letters given out by Santa said, “I hope that your company will consider the local people who rejected this coal mine for over thirty years; remember the great crested newts, badgers, red kites, foxes, and the many other plants and creatures who know this land as home and contemplate the effect on the people living here who would lose their access to a much valued green space as well as being affected by the noise, light pollution, dust and traffic.”
The UK Government first said it intended to phase-out coal in November 2015. No new opencast coal mines have started since that announcement.[3] The UK and Canadian governments are encouraging other countries to join them in the Powering Past Coal Alliance and move from coal to renewable energy. [4] A new coal mine starting soon would be deeply embarrassing for the Government as it would show that it is all talk and no action.
Last week Theresa May said, “by putting the UK at the forefront of efforts to cut carbon emissions and develop clean energy, we can also make the most of new economic opportunities. And by taking action to create a secure natural environment, we are fulfilling a duty we owe to the next generation.” [5] A new coal mine starting soon would be deeply embarrassing for the Government as it would show that it is all talk and no action.
============================Notes ============================
[1] Tradition says that Santa leaves coal in the stockings of children who have been naught in the previous year.
[2] Three years after it was granted.
[3] In September 2017 the UK Government said they would phase-out coal by 2025.
[4] Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (16/11/17) Climate Change Minister Claire Perry launches Powering Past Coal Alliance at COP23
[5]May, T. (12/12/17) It’s Britain’s duty to help nations hit by climate change
Banks Group operate two Northumberland opencast coal mines, Shotton and Brenkley Lane and are awaiting a decision from the Secretary of State for Communities, Sajid Javid on its application for a new six million ton mine at Highthorn close to Druridge Bay, Northumberland.
Bradley site history – UK Coal secured planning permission for the Bradley site. It liquidated in December 2015 after Kellingley, the last deep mine of significant size in the UK closed which belonged to the company. The application was subject to a planning hearing, two appeals and a High Court ruling before being approved.
Coal only produced 9% of the electricity consumed in 2016 and this year is likely to be much below this level.
Hope, M. (29/11/17) From the Valleys to the Beaches, New Coal Mines Bring Fear not Hope
Macalister, T. (18/12/15) Kellingley colliery closure: ‘shabby end’ for a once mighty industry
Carbon Brief (04/01/17) Analysis: UK wind generated more electricity than coal in 2016
Over the past few weeks, the UK government has styled itself as a leader of an international coal phase-out. But the coal site that everyone had forgotten about could be about to open in their back yard…
For 30 years, residents near Bradley (near Dipton, County Durham), fought against a proposed open cast coal mine which would have had devastating long-term effects on the local environment and community’s health, producing coal for only 2-3 years.
UK Coal were granted permission to open the mine in June 2015 but they had gone into liquidation and the project was shelved, local residents celebrated.
Since then, the government has pledged to phase- out coal, leading the international ‘Powering Past Coal’ alliance. Since the first suggestion of the 2025 coal-phase-out, no new open cast mines have opened.
That could all change now that Banks Group have bought the UK coal site near Bradley.
In January Banks will decide whether or not to exploit the site for coal. Then they have 6 months to strip the land and begin mining.*
This should be very embarrassing for Theresa May, who said this week;
“By putting the UK at the forefront of efforts to cut carbon emissions and develop clean energy, we can also make the most of new economic opportunities. And by taking action to create a secure natural environment, we are fulfilling a duty we owe to the next generation.”
This rings pretty hollow if companies are still able to mine more sites for coal in the UK, devastating local environments and health, while potentially making it easier and cheaper for power stations to burn coal when they should be closing.
This is a cause for concern for communities and campaign groups working against all applications for open cast mines across the UK- a number of which have been left sitting in the appeals process. If a new mine goes ahead, this could set a precedent for opening new mines amid a supposed coal phase-out.
With the price of coal recently spiking, there’s a real possibility that we could start 2018 with more coal being produced in the UK than in 2017. Not exactly ‘Power Past Coal’.
Let’s make sure Banks don’t get away with it, and that the UK government knows that a coal phase-out includes closing mines, as well as power stations!
*Source: Coal Action email exchange with Durham County Council December 2017
Today members of Coal Action Network joined Unfriend Coal and Divest London at the headquarters of international insurance companies AIG and Lloyds to demand bolder action to move away from coal.
Most major insurance companies underwrite various stages of the coal supply-chain, including open-cast coal mines. Anton Lementuev, a resident in the Kuzbass coal-mining region of Russia, commented;
“Wherever opencast coal mining projects occur you find human rights abuses, high incidences of health problems and loss of wildlife and ecology. Here in the Russian Kuzbass region we have all suffered all of this because insurance companies were willing to support more than fifty coal mines. Insurance companies should withdraw their support for the coal industry and mines need to be closed.”
The action coincides with a new report and scorecard published today by Unfriend Coal revealing that while leading insurance companies have already pulled $20 billion out of investments in coal and a growing number are refusing to underwrite new coal projects, more action is urgently needed. In fact most insurers have yet to do anything to prevent the risk of dangerous climate change. The report finds that no U.S. insurer has taken meaningful action, nor have major European companies.
Today protests are taking place across Russia, including in the coal producing Kuzbass region, in criticism of the devastating social and environmental violence wrought by the coal mining industry. The protesters include members of the Shor indigenous community whose lands and ways of life are being destroyed by opencast coal mining in the region.
кузбасский уголь = культурный геноцид
Kuzbass Coal = Cultural Genocide
Coal silo and conveyor belt in background where Russian coal is loaded on to trains.
Coal train waiting to be loaded in background
****Stop Buying Russian Coal****
***прекратить покупать кузбасский уголь.***
***Coal Mining = Cultural Genocide ***
***кузбасский уголь = культурный геноцид ***
#notokuzbasscoal
