Early finish for controversial Wrekin mine work
Controversial opencast mining work at the foot of the Wrekin could be completed by the end of this year, more than six months ahead of schedule.
UK Coal, which owns the 230-acre surface mine at Huntington Lane, Little Wenlock, has said work is progressing well and that on completion it will have extracted more than 800,000 tonnes of coal from the site. It will then close it and restore the land.
UK Coal mining policy manager Craig Ball said that while UK Coal had hoped to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal from the site, the final total was likely to be a little less.
"This started in November 2010 and it was originally envisaged to last 44 months until June 2014," he said.
"We are slightly ahead of that now and are hoping that we can complete operations in 2013. That means the site will be mined, worked, and will be restored.
"If we're beaten by the weather it may well go into the start of 2014, but that will be weather-dependant."
Mr Ball said the project was also likely to come in under budget.
"It's generally run at what we expected, but we've invested quite a lot into new machinery at the site and that's helped move the site forward a little quicker than expected," he said.
The scheme has created 35 jobs on site with more in the supply chain.
But it attracted widespread opposition from local residents and environmental campaigners before planning permission was granted, and protestors had to be evicted from the site before work could begin in 2010.
Trevor Hines, land rehabilitation manager at UK Coal, said it will take just a few months to 'green up the land' again.
He said: "By law we have five years to manage the land and restore it. We're dealing with disturbed soil, so we have to get that back into a situation where the farmer can come back to farm the land in the way he's always done it.
"To green it up will all take a matter of months, but it takes time for the landscape to mature."
