Town facing new fight over underground dump project (From The Northern Echo)

Town facing new fight over underground dump project

10:37am Thursday 11th January 2007 in News

A LAND development company is considering using the huge anhydrite mine under Billingham as a deposit for low-level hazardous and inert waste.

But residents have already started a campaign to block the move by NPL Estates Limited to reopen the disused mine, which is owned by ICI.

Councillors have thrown the project into doubt before any formal application has been lodged.

Councillor Alex Cunningham, who represents Billingham, said: "I am vehemently opposed to the reopening.

"This mine is under much of the town. We are talking about a massive area."

Simon Towers, managing director of NPL Estates, attempted to reassure residents.

He said: "We are undertaking a technical review of the mine with a view to determining whether it would be suitable for long-term storage of materials.

"This process is expected to take a number of months following which we would present findings and initial proposals to the council and local residents in Billingham via a series of public exhibitions.

"It is considered at this stage that the mine could be suitable for the storage of a variety of materials including inert wastes such as building rubble and certain categories of low-level hazardous waste such as ash from local industrial facilities. Liquid or reactive wastes would not be allowed.

"We would like to take this opportunity to reassure all interested parties that there are no definitive plans in place to reopen the mine at this point."

However, Billingham's Labour Party has been collecting signatures in an attempt to drum up support to prevent the mine reopening.

A spokesman for the group said: "We have not yet seen any details of this proposal, and it may well be that the waste they have in mind would not be any kind of threat, but we are opposed to the simple principle of reopening that mine.

"The anhydrite mine caverns are immense and once they are reopened, who knows what other proposals could be forthcoming for dumping all manner of things down there.

"We are also very worried about the knock-on effect on our local roads and communities if waste was transported to the site for dumping down the mine."

One campaigner who protested against the plans first time round in the 1980s, Pauline Walker, of Lincoln Crescent, said: "Nobody wants it under their home and I will campaign against it."

A ICI spokesman confirmed that the company was in consultation with NPL about the future of the mine.

He said: "These discussions are subject to commercial confidentiality.

"However, ICI's position remains unchanged and it will not sell the mine to any party intending to use it for the storage of nuclear waste.