Villagers keep up pressure against Minorca mine

A local campaign group is fighting UK Coal’s plans for an opencast mine near Measham in North West Leicestershire. The Minorca Opencast Protest Group (MOPG) oppose the company’s plans for a mile long mine and the extraction of 1.25m tonnes of coal over 4 1/2 years. UK Coal are already failing to meet requirements to restore a site in nearby Ashby de la Zouch to agricultural land and MOPG fear that this will happen again.

It is thought that coal mined at Minorca would be used to fuel Ratcliffe on Soar power station in Nottinghamshire. The mined coal would fuel the power station for only 65 days.

A residents group, in a tranquil part of Leicestershire, has announced their opposition to UK Coal’s plans to mine for 1.25 million tonnes of coal and 250,000 tonnes of clay in the National Forest. This huge opencast site, on the edge of Measham, will be a major intrusion into the landscape and into the lives of hundreds of people in the village of Measham and the surrounding area of Newton Burgoland and Swepstone.

UK Coal is proposing to reopen the Minorca Pit site, between Measham and Swepstone as an opencast mine. The site will be over one mile long and half a mile wide. On three of its four sides, the boundaries will be Swepstone Road, Gallows Lane and Bosworth Road respectively. The fourth side of the boundary is a public footpath between Bosworth Road and Swepstone Road approximately 700m west of Swepstone. They intend to work on the site for a total of 4.5 years, extracting 1.25m tonnes of coal and 250,000 tonnes of clay, 12 hours a day (Monday to Friday 7am -7pm) plus 6 hours a day on Saturdays also from 7am. This will generate, they say, an average of 12 HGV movements an hour.

Links: Minorca Opencast Protest Group | Campaign resources | Notts Against New Coal