Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Mining work ‘devastates’ Wrekin beauty spot
Monday 18th October 2010, 7:00PM BST.
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WORK TO pave the way for the mining of 900,000 tonnes of coal in the shadow of The Wrekin has “devastated” the beauty spot in just a matter of days, it was claimed today.
This photograph, taken from the summit of The Wrekin, shows just how much land at Huntington Lane, Little Wenlock, has already been dug over, claims the campaign group All Friends Around the Wrekin.
Group secretary Steve Turvey was out walking on The Wrekin on Saturday when he took the photo, which he says showed how the view from the mount had been “desecrated” since clearing work began last Wednesday.
He said: “The photo shows what devastation has been caused in just four days’ work by UK coal. One of the key views from the Wrekin is fast disappearing.
“The travesty of the public inquiry is now unfolding and, talking to visitors to The Wrekin on Saturday afternoon. people were shocked by this sight.”
He added: “It is unlikely we can now prevent this destruction.”
UK Coal spokesman Stuart Oliver today said Mr Turvey’s comments were to be expected from someone whose heart was so committed to The Wrekin.
“Our objective is to be a good neighbour and to work with the community and restore this site to tip top condition once we have extracted the energy resource,” he added.
The firm, which won permission to mine the area after a public inquiry, began securing the southernmost part and clearing topsoil on Wednesday, which included dismantling two treehouses put up by protesters.
The treehouses, on Site A at Huntington Lane, were empty at the time but workers cut branches to ensure they could not be rebuilt and protesters were warned they faced arrest if they trespassed on the land.
A spokesman for the protesters today said: “Police officers and members of the National Eviction Team arrived on Site A to find the treehouses sadly unoccupied.
“The treehouses have now been removed and branches lopped off the trees so they can’t go back up.
“Protesters have been threatened with arrest should they trespass upon Site A. An eviction notice is yet to be served but this chain of events would appear to suggest its imminent arrival.”
The protesters are now camped out in a corridor between Sites A and B and they said today their fight against the mining operations was “only just beginning”.
One said: “We are a peaceful protest but we are going to put our bodies in the way and make things as awkward as possible for UK Coal.”
By Simon Hardy
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How long will 900,000 tonnes of coal last. Is it really worth it? I am now beginning to agree with the protesters :(
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How do they fit it all in with a days work?
Look at Silverdale in Staffs. Used to be a mining town now a regenerated green field site, Simples!
Burrs field Shrewsbury, used to be dirty great big lead factory. Now recreational ground though I personally wouldn’t grow my veggies there!
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devasting view and shameful that these works are going ahead – but not sure this photo is taken from the “summit of the Wrekin”. Cameraman is facing north north east and Little Wenlock and the Wrekin are to the west of this shot out of view.
Also get a shot from the Wrekin View and see how that panorama of the Wrekin has been forever altered by development.
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I just hope the protesters’ employers are very understanding….
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Ok an open mine site is a bit of a temporary blot on the landscape. However if you want to talk about blots on the landscape, how about wind turbines? thats what I call real desecration of the landscape.
Mr Turvey would do better going out protesting against wind farms. They are real eyesores. The mine will only be an eysore for a year or two and then like others before it will be restored to it’s former beauty.
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Ah! The greed of UK Coal.
Come on, Mr Oliver. I’d LOVE to hear your spin on the devastation seen in Mr Turvey’s photograph.
What’s your next plan? Strip mining near Stonehenge?
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Well somebody stuck a dirty great duel carriageway next to Stonehenge which made no difference what so ever..
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here’s another view from the Wrekin – http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_green/254913830/
stop pretending this area is some sort of idyllic beauty spot, it’s been an industrial for generations.
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Brilliant!
I would love to see some pictures from 100 years ago when the landscape would have been covered by iron works etc. :)
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“An open mine site is a temporary blot on the landscape” – how? If you’re blasting a great big hole in the landscape to take a finite resource out then it clearly isn’t temporary. UK Coal can spin all they want – it’s a hideous scar in a beautiful landscape than can never be restored to its original form.
My best wishes to the protesters, they may not be everyone’s cup of tea but their cause is more than justified.
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Once all the coal has been extracted a dirty big hole will remain. Could anyone suggest another alternative to what most other open cast mines are filled with, “LANDFILL”.
It would be foolish to think that once the two year plan to remove the coal is over that the more lucrative business of waste disposal won’t prevail.
It would be niave to think this is just a short term venture by British Coal as the remaining land fills in Telford will be full in a couple of years. Not a coincidence i think.
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I live very close to this mine, and whilst I’d rather my kids didn’t have to breathe in the inevitable dust that will ensue, don’t forget we’ve already been through this once when they open cast Lawley.
My objection is this, before the land is backfilled, they will lay the drains ready for the forthcoming housing. It happened in Lawley (after a 5 year settling period).
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Yupp!! – and I’ll hazard a guess that they’ll make more out of the sale of housing land than they do from the coal.
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UKCoal said in the early days that they would like to turn this area into a golf course, but later on changed their mind and said the land would be sold for housing, something they said in one of their earlier press releases.
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IF there is any coal there. I remember a feature on a BBC Radio 4 science programme when the strip mine, though it ruined the area, produced virtually no coal as: “Those Victorian miners were much better at mining than we thought, They took most of the coal out with their primitive methods!”
Clearly, the strip miners knew nothing about the history of mining or Victorian mining techniques.
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“My objection is this, before the land is backfilled, they will lay the drains ready for the forthcoming housing. It happened in Lawley (after a 5 year settling period).”
What? Forthcoming housing, surely that can’t be right? Surely UK Coal couldn’t have lied to us about making it a wonderful parkland could they? Surely they’re not going to make up the big hole with lanfill rubbish could they?
Surely the gullible people like Spencer, Eva and Grey couldn’t be wrong about UK coal could they?
Watch that space…..
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As if I ever had any trust in UK Coal, I think you’ll find I’ve always believed that the land will eventually be sold as housing. All I have said is that there were no material planning reasons for this mine to be refused planning permisson. The application did state that the mine would be restored to agricultural land however a little digging around planning policy in Telford and a site called “land to the west of Lawley” has been being promoted by a housebuilder as site for a “sustainable urban extension”. I have little doubt that is this site, it will be far easier to get the land allocated for development when it is officially classed as brownfield even if it has been restored to agricultural land.
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Any view from the Wrekin to the east is desecrated buy the classic set of planning errors that is….. Telford! It’s far too late to start protesting now, it should have been properly designed on a human scale and without the wholesale destruction of the borough towns.
But if there is to be rather large hole created, why on earth not fill it with water and create not only a reservoir (we keep being warned about water shortages in the future) but also a public amenity?
There are plenty of brownfield sites inside the existing Telford boundaries which could be ‘recovered’ for housing and which are already within the built up area.
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#9 [I live very close to this mine]
What do you live in a hole in the ground Tricky?
No, one of those things called a house I expect.
Do you have drains and the such like serving your house?
Lucky old you!
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So you’d be happy to cover all of our few remaining areas of natural beauty with tightly packed houses, none of which have any garden whatsoever ?.
I am lucky that I was able to move to the countryside, enjoy the fresh air, the views, the wildlife and let my kids play outside without stressing. All of which is now under threat due to corporate greed.
I like Bill’s idea, something which brings a little culture or recreation to Telford would be preferable, but I suspect the council are looking for a bigger return by way of all the council tax payments they’ll get.
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“Our objective is to be a good neighbour and to work with the community and restore this site to tip top condition once we have extracted the energy resource,”
Eh?!? After extracting 900,000 tonnes of coal as well as all the soil and waste?
Impossible. They will do the minimum required by law then sod off and dig up somewhere else. Mr Oliver and the money men don’t give a fig for the area or the people of Telford.
At a time when we are talking about sustainability, growing our own food and depending less on imports, and trying to cut our national CO2 output, this mine is a big leap in the opposite direction.
A sad day for the area but also for our hopes for the future.
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[At a time when we are talking about sustainability, growing our own food and depending less on imports,]
Well I suppose that this will be less coal we we will need to import?
[I am lucky that I was able to move to the countryside, enjoy the fresh air, the views, the wildlife and let my kids play outside without stressing. All of which is now under threat due to corporate greed.]
So other people should not be able to do what you have done?
Isn’t that greddy?
After all you do not own the land in question.
If houses were to be proposed then fight for better quality rather than pointless opposition.
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Within the last 2 years, 3,400 houses have been planned for , within 2 miles of where I live, near Lawley. So called brownfield sites, the same sites where sheep are grazing right now ?.The same sites which formerly had thriving hedgerows full of wildlife and are now paved over for housing that can’t be sold because the banks are too scared to lend to new borrowers.
Wake up Eva !,the point of my opposition is that quality is the last thing on these peoples minds, come and see for yourself.
I understand the the (unsustainable) reliance on fossil fuels, but why lie about restoring these sites to their former natural beauty when the truth is that we are forever losing these few remaining green fields of Telford, to sub standard housing estates. Perhaps you take more comfort in the fact that you can run you tumble drier cheaply for a few more years, your kids will be very proud.
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I don’t use one Tricky, I use a line outside or a pulley airer in the kitchen.
My house was on fields before it was built though that was 130 years ago.
The millenium village in Telford is a great development and you should be proud that some new houses are being designed well and can set a precedent for future housing to attain.
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