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Group plans mine protest
Friday 27th February 2009, 12:20PM GMT.
Campaigners will be taking their protest against proposals for an opencast mine to a Shropshire beauty spot tomorrow.
Members of Telford Against New Coal will be at the summit of The Wrekin talking to people about the proposals for a site at Huntington Lane, near Little Wenlock.
UK Coal has submitted plans to extract 900,000 tonnes of coal, largely destined for Ironbridge Power Station, from the site. A public inquiry is due to start in April. Telford & Wrekin Council has indicated it would be opposed to the plans.
TANC will also be in Wellington tomorrow inviting residents to inform the planning inspectorate of any objections they may have.
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this is NOT ACCEPTABLE, it will not be allowed to happen i can promise them a war if they want one
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Jenny Powell – You and whose army?
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Jenny: I don’t think they want one, so you won’t be obliged to fulfill your promise.
They will just dig the coal so you can have electricity in your home regardless.
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Good luck to TANC – I hope that their hard work is not met with apathy, and that they get even more support from those who use the Wrekin.
Sometimes, we do not appreciate what we have locally, until it has changed forever, perhaps those who come here from outside will match the 500 local objectors to UK Coals proposal to decimate the beauty spot for capital gain.
Friends of the Ercall.
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Pat: It wont be changed ‘forever’. It will be used as a land-fill site afterwards because people dont want their rubbished incinerated to make electricity in their backyard- they want your coal from your back yard, as do the Market Drayton ‘No Green Wind Turbines in our Back Yard’ protestors.
Then it will be made into nice and green and a valuable community facitity.
Ever walked up Snowdon via the Pyg Track? Well that was a hive of mining and look how beautiful it is now. No doubt you would have objected to that.
It just takes a little vision.
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we must never allow them to dig the wrekin
its a shropshire landmark and if they try i will chain myself to trees and ensure this companies share price collapses
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Lucy, unfortunately NIMBY’s have a lack of vision, they moan when its in their area, but would not dream of supporting other communities who may not agree with some local proposals. People like these will hold this country back and keep doing it when we can least afford to be held back.
Get the coal out of the ground and build some nice houses on it afterwards.
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I am an unashamed Nimby when it comes to incinerators until someone can prove to me that breathing in the toxins from burning plastics does not harm my nor my childrens health. But it’s not my back yard – anywhere that the ‘fallout’ will affect us is included!
I haven’t joined an action group against mining on the Wrekin because it doesn’t affect me. I too have seen some lovely sites post-mining but then I would be unaffected by the disturbance and traffic from such a venture.
It is not that I would not dream of ‘supporting’ other communities, it’s just not my war….
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over my dead body
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sorry wrong place for a coal mine, this cannot be allowed planning permission
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Jake: Don’t worry, they are not digging the Wrekin up, just a hole at the bottom.
Mind you, I understand that the Wrekin is basalt rock (?) and is ideal for concrete to make all the lovely houses you live in, the factories you working, the roads you travel on etc.
So why not close every other quarry in the UK and chipaway at the Wrekin as it would supply the UK for the next 50 years. Better economis of scale, better pollution and nuisance control etc etc.
I think Telford ‘The Birth Place of Industrial Pollution’ should make the sacrifice for the rest of the UK.
Idontbelieveit: Can you prove that incineration pollution does cause ill health?
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Just to be clear guys, they were never proposing actually mining on or out of the Wrekin. Its closer to New Works and the Candles Landfill site than it is The Wrekin.
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never never never never
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Grey
it’s not just the mining though is it? It’s the aftershock of all those houses in an area of history and beauty.
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Mark: Never say never, and certainly never never never never say never never never never.
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Brian, but there are no houses being proposed as yet. There would need to be another application and while I’m sure that is what UK coal would like to do in the long term, if you went to the inquiry and started talking about houses on the site the Inspector would just dismiss your statement.
These protestors must only use material planning considerations and not conjecture if they are going to win.
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Grey: Getting planning for houses will be a formality as everyone will be desperate for the site to be tidied up at the end of its life.
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That may be so Lucy but the current app says it will be restored for agricultural land so that and only that is what will be considered at the inquiry.
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Thing is Grey, they get permission for mine upon condition of restoring to farm land. But at the end, say they are skint and can’t afford to restore it unless its for houses – they know every trick in the book. They’re not muppets.
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Grey, the site has been earmarked as having the capability for over 300 houses for quite some time now. If you don’t believe me then ask Pat Judson of “friends of the Ercall”.
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Grey,
I’m sure that no one here is gullible enough to believe that it will be restored to agriculture. It will become, (if it isn’t already), a Brownfield site and so make planning for houses a doddle, just like the fields at Lawley.
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Like I said before I don’t doubt that that is the aim of the company but it won’t be considered at the inquiry I’m just urging those campaigning aginst it not to focus too much on potential for housing at this particular inquiry because it will not be considered. At a planning inquiry the inspector will only consider the current application and that says it will be restored to agriculture.
Besides there are many other green field site being considered for housing. Has anyone seen the Strategic Housing Land Assessment? There are hundreds of sites outside the current settlement boundary being considered. I think Nedge Hill and land north of Apley and Leegomerey is the most at risk and Wappensall too if the canal is restored.
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