This year the owners of the remaining 9 UK coal fired power stations which are not to close by 2016 or convert to Biomass will have to make far reaching decisions by the end of the year. They must decide whether to upgrade their stations to reduce pollution, convert to biomass or close by 2023 or when they have used up a 20,000 hour allowance.Meanwhile the UK Coal indusrty, ever more reliant on op…

Derbyshire, which is becoming a new centre for Opencast Coal mining with I site already in operation at Lodge House, an application for another one at George Farm, a possible one at Hill Top now faces the possibility of another one near Renishaw, Staverly and Barlborough.

Last November members of the local community living in Smalley Derbyshire lost there second battle with UK Coal, with the open cast mine at Lodge House having planning approved for an extension that will see a further 192 hectares of land desecrated and a further 750,000 tonnes of coal extracted. There had been way over 400 written letters of objection to the extension, yet unsurprisingly, th…

This contains news that John Craven and a Counrtyfile team visited the Measham area on 3/8/10 to investigate issues around opencast mining after choosing the Minorca application as a case example to show on the Countryfile Programme 

The Leicester Mercury has become the 1st Newspaper to endorse the need for a 500 meter Buffer Zone around Opencast Mines in England