At the Public Inquiry last August, I attended on behalf of Over Hulton residents and submitted both verbal and written representations requesting the Department of the Environment to reject the RJB appeal to be granted permission to carry out opencast mining in the Over Hulton and neighbouring areas. I was recently invited to submit fresh representations because a new Mineral Guidance Note was published in October 1998 which contained more stringent guidelines for opencast applications. Three of these guidelines are critical in the argument for rejection of the appeal:

"Preliminary findings of research carried out for the Department on the need for opencast for blending on this account (power generation) are not conclusive. More importantly, large quantities of low chlorine coals are readily available on the international market. In the absence of conclusive data, the Government therefore does not regard a need for coal blending as a significant issue for the land use planning system, nor does it see a role for the system in influencing the operation of the market in coal.

"However, the Government takes the view that, although some sites are capable of being well restored, opencast mining can be extremely damaging to the environment of a locality while it is taking place, and the restored landscape can take many years to mature.

"It is becoming increasingly difficult to find sites that can be worked without damaging the environment to an extent that local communities and society in general find unacceptable".

All the above points apply to the RJB proposals. Coupled with the pre-election cast-iron guarantee that a Labour Government would veto any plans to opencast at Over Hulton, our case for the rejection of the RJB appeal outweighs the case put forward at the Public Inquiry by the mining company. There seems justification for some optimism that the RJB appeal may be rejected once and for all.

I am sure that local residents wish the people who live in Westhoughton success in their battle against the housebuilders.

John E Booth

Over Hulton Anti-Opencast Group

Thirlmere Road, Over Hulton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.