Mine ‘would kill town’s image’
Wednesday 27th May 2009, 4:15PM BST.
Telford’s image as a modern, clean town, surrounded by countryside, would be wrecked by an opencast coal mine in an area of outstanding natural beauty, it was claimed today.
Planning expert Dr Malcolm Hockaday said residents’ lives would be spoilt by noise, dust and traffic from excavations visible from The Wrekin.
And he accused UK Coal of failing to prove any exceptional need to justify digging up a nationally important beauty spot and wildlife haven.
He was speaking at a public inquiry into UK Coal’s application to extract 900,000 tonnes of coal from a site in Huntington Lane over three years.
The coal, largely destined for Ironbridge Power Station, would come from two craters between Little Wenlock and New Works, linked by a “haul road” for trucks over a scheduled ancient monument.
UK Coal says 92 jobs would be created while Telford’s economy would be boosted by the site’s £13 million annual turnover.
It claims the mine is needed to cut Britain’s reliance on imported coal and reduce the carbon footprint of carrying coal thousands of miles from Siberia.
Telford & Wrekin Council, which is leading the opposition, today called its main witness, Cardiff-based consultant Dr Hockaday, a fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
He said: “Telford’s success has been based on its new identity as a modern and clean town, lying within attractive green surroundings.
“The legacy of deep mining and associated industry has now all but disappeared.”
The council’s efforts to shed Telford’s mining past and move into the 21st century would be harmed by a new mine, he claimed.
Dr Hockaday said that the proposed site, which is partly in the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, was a nationally important buffer between Telford and the countryside.
It was treasured as a gateway to The Wrekin.
Its planning status was the same as a national park and Government policy banned opencast mines in such areas except in “exceptional” circumstances, he said.
The inquiry continues.
By Peter Johnson
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what???????? its already ruined by the chav’s that live there!!!!!!!
be serious……
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Telford’s image as a nice clean town? Is this a different Telford to one I know? The Telford I know has an image of a “new town with no centre or soul and is in fact a bit rubbish”
Telford needs the mine. Mine = jobs = future
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I knew a story of this nature, (keywords: Telford, mine, image), and the inevitable “Have Your Say” option being enabled for it, would draw inflammatory, mindless dribblings from so-called contributors.
And there we have it, sitting proudly at #1.
If I was a mod, that little nugget of clarity of thought would be binned. Immediately.
So. Daz. Where is the supporting information for your bold claim? Or is it just inane anecdotal evidence?
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I’ve lived in shropshire most of my life and ‘clean’ and ‘modern’ are words I’ve never heard associated with Telford. Giant car park, dismal shopping cente, populated with criminal chavs, now that’s the Telford I know!
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We thought it was the end when Lawley Common was opencast 3times beginning 45yrs ago. Today it is lush and green nurturing spring lambs and surrounded by mature woodland with an abundance of wild life. Every morning I thank the powers that gave back this aesthetic vision.
The soul of Telford is rooted in Mining be it coal or clay, what’s wrong with an image of hard working, intrepid individuals?
Malcolm Hockaday is not speaking for all Telford residents, his opinion is one of
selfserving ignorance. Letters after your name is no proof of wisdom or knowledge.
Modern clean town huh! what about community cohesion, unity, trust,communication that was there for all to benefit from way before dictatorial campaign forced inquiries.
Financial cost of this is extortionate will account for at least 1% of our Council Tax.
Good on you UK Coal; can’t wait to see those massive earth movers again.
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To be a modern Town would it not need a town centre, somewhere for nightlife and socialising?
All I can find are cheaply built public houses with Carvery deals – there is no soul to the place, no vibrancy, no get up and go.
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Thank you Paul (comment #5) for putting this into perspective. There’s been too much talk about “Telford’s image”, while forgetting that the area’s heritage is of a collection of mining townships. Much of our public open space is old pit banks, with the most attractive tending to be those that have been left to regenerate naturally, rather than being turned into featureless moonscapes (“landscaping”).
Why is it that our industrial heritage is only worth preserving if it is in Ironbridge?
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I am afraid the description of Telford being surrounded by country side is a description I no longer recognise. Each piece of green belt seems to be sold off for housing with planning permission readily agreed by our council. Very soon the ‘countryside’ around Telford will consist of the Brecon Beacons, The Chilterns, The Yorkshire Moors and Sussex Downs.
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All towns have bad and good area’s, Telford is no different from Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth in that respect and to claim that Telford is inhabited by chavs sorely is a wrong and incorrect statement.
Parts of Telford are very nice places to live and it is afact that if you live in telford you have ready access to the countryside.
I wish all these people trying to be funny would put brain into gear before they type
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Telford in itself isn’t bad – there’s lots of hard working folk living there and sometimes suffering from bad neighbors. Telford Town centre is a slow motion car crash thats happened and others are piling into it.
I would think the Ironstone developers are seething at the thought that potential new home buyers will be put off by lots of huge noisy lorries trashing their ‘boulavard’ on their trek to the motorway and the dust (and possibly noise) will coat the houses and cars when the wind is in that direction.. lovely, when the market is already flat.
In the past that area of Telford had lower population – soon, a mine could bring plenty of lorries through this new urban area.
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I would have thought given our areas heritage that a mine would be most welcome in Telford especially for local businesses and people out of work etc.
#3 oh come on “Winja” (and I live in Telford) – our Centre is a bit chavvy you know :-) – but there’s good and bad everywhere.
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Sorry to disappoint you Paul but Lawley Common will soon cease to be the green wonderland you describe.
Log onto http://www.ironstone.uk.net/maps.asp this shows you what lies ahead – 3300 new houses, shops, supermarkets, pubs and a hotel. At least you will be near a town centre and there will always be the Golf Course at Horsehay for that bit of green grass.
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We are talking about the same “modern, clean town” which is completely designed around, and dominated by, the motor car? The same place which encourages the lifestyle of living in a semi-detached house on a boring, sprawling housing estate, where you then have to drive to get to anything, especially the indoor shopping mall (called “the town centre” by the jokers who designed and now run the place) which is essentially a massive air conditioning unit in the middle of a gigantic car park surrounded by roads.
Fail.
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I was amused by the report on the radio from the MPs who were hoping to sway the hearing.Have they suddenly become experts into the mining industry etc? and I thought they were there to represent the community not just selective parts, ummm I wonder where one of the MPs live?
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“Log onto http://www.ironstone.uk.net/maps.asp this shows you what lies ahead – 3300 new houses, shops, supermarkets, pubs and a hotel”
So that’s possibly, another 6000 plus people with breathing problems in a few years then. Does corporate manslaughter cover chest diseases?
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Proud Salopian (and others).
This is a commentary page relating to the potential damage a mining installation could do to the environs surrounding Little Wenlock, Eastern Wellington, and The Wrekin.
It is nothing to do with Telford as a whole, and how it is perceived.
Comment #13 is an epic fail.
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hang on a minute, how can people say telford is’nt bad?????????
firstly it has the highest crime rate in all area’s of crime in shropshire and 5th in the west midlands, secondly it has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in shropshire and the west mids, and thirdly it is full of chav’s and dole dossers because all the foreigners that live in telford have nicked all the jobs!!!!
im not wrong………. look if cant deny future jobs telford needs that mine….so a big hole will be built and all the chav’s put in it to chisel away at the rock bed.
rest my case.
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Oh winja, how amusing you are. The article in question claims that the mining operations should not happen because of the image of Telford as a whole – it begins quite clearly with “Telford’s image as a modern, clean town, surrounded by countryside…” – I, and others, are merely suggesting that Telford’s image is not exactly squeaky clean in the first place.
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Winja, the article is headlined ‘Mine would kill towns image’ so I think it is perfectly valid to talk about how Telford is perceived.
Proud Salopian is spot on, Telford has larger problems than a proposed coal mine in a sparsley populated area.
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The coal is destined for the local power station. Makes perfect sense to dig it up there and put up with a mine for 3 years. They can only dig it up once!
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In reply to Devils Chair #10, suprisingly, Ironstone, did not oppose UK Coals plan to opencast mine so close to its Lawley development.
Could it be that they know something about UK Coals representation for 2016 , and housing development in the regional plan, and the focus being the “Northern ” site, nearest Shortwood and Arleston?
When we presented evidence about the above representation (admitted by UK Coal on Radio Shropshire live, last february, Jim Hawkins show), the Inspector refused to consider “Future development”, as it was not part of the application being appealed, and UK Coal , despite intense cross examination, refused to speak any further of their subsidiary company Haworth holdings/estates representation for use of the land after it has been mined out.
Natural regeneration of old mine sites in Telford is preferential to vast , featureless wildernesses that UK Coal love to claim is improvement.
Friends of the Ercall.
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I was in the lovely Lake District and enjoying the panorama fro Scaw Fell Pike I looked down on the Nucleur Power Station at Selafield. It’s really quite in obtrusive and has an industrial beauty to it, plus employs 1000′s of people.
Perhaps this is what Telford needs if they don’y like traditional mines? A Nuke Satation was be good for Telford’s ‘progressive’ image.
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