A retired GP today criticised an independent report into the potential health risks that plans for an open cast mine in the shadow of The Wrekin could pose to Telford residents.

Dr Dick van Steenis claimed the health impact assessment carried out into UK Coal’s proposals to extract coal at Huntington Lane did not contain important scientific evidence and relied on out-of-date air quality reports.

A six-week planning inquiry into the application is due to start in Telford on Tuesday.

Dr van Steenis has presented expert evidence about the dangers to health to four planning inquiries and against 10 planning applications – all of which have resulted in the applications being refused.

He said: “They have ignored air quality reports from Defra from 2007 and 2008 and instead used figures from 2000.”

He said that he had sent in hard evidence using 345 references from medical journals and it hadn’t been used.

Dr van Steenis, who lives in Sarn, near Newtown, said: “I’ve done four planning inquiries on open cast mining and 10 planning applications and I have 14 out of 14, so I think I know what I am talking about.

“They have put in a few pages from the Primary Care Trust about the state of health in Telford, but have left out information about asthma, heart attacks, infant mortality and suicides.”

The £80,000 report was commissioned by Telford & Wrekin Council to look at UK Coal’s application to extract 900,000 tonnes of coal from the site near Little Wenlock.

Nigel Newman, council spokesman, said: “The draft health impact assessment (HIA) has been prepared for the council by internationally-respected consultants Ben Cave Associates.”