Trainer rethinks stance on opencast mine plan (From The Northern Echo)

Trainer rethinks stance on opencast mine plan

7:58am Monday 19th January 2009 in News By Bessie Robinson, Chief Reporter (South West Durham)

NO OBJECTIONS: Howard Johnson

A LEADING racehorse trainer will not be siding with objectors to an opencast site even though it will take over some of his land.

Howard Johnson believes Britain’s biggest mining company, UK Coal, has done enough to limit the disruption to his yard near Crook, County Durham.

Mr Johnson, whose partnership with millionaire owner Graham Wylie has brought a string of successes, says he will not lose any of his 150 horses or cut staff jobs.

He wants the five-year scheme at the 126-hectare Park Wall North site to start and end as quickly as possible so that life in the area can get back to normal.

The company is expected to be given planning permission on Wednesday to mine part of the former White Lea Farm site between Tow Law, Sunniside and Crook, where it says it will create 60 jobs by digging 1.27 million tonnes of coal and up to 500,000 tonnes of brick-making fireclay.

Durham county councillors are being advised to agree to the development, despite strong objections from residents.

The council turned down a bid for a larger site in 1996, but UK Coal says it has now addressed the reasons for the refusal.

It has also offered a £120,000 community fund to support projects in nearby villages and will finance a mains gas supply to Sunniside if the application is passed.

Mr Johnson agreed that the company had dispelled many of his own concerns.

He said: “They have been very fair. I was going to object and so were my staff, but we are not now.

“They are taking some of my gallop, but they have cut it down from 22-and-a-half acres to half that, and they are putting in a walkway for the horses.

“I am losing a fair bit of land but it won’t make any material difference.

“All the big machines will be away from me, towards the A68, so they won’t bother us here. The site traffic is onto the A68 as well.

“I think the sooner they get on with it the better.”

However, another horseman, Peter Irving, fears the site will affect his hobby.

As chairman of Billy Row Community Association he led a 2006 survey of homes, which produced a 75 per cent vote against the opencast.

Wear Valley District Council subsequently rejected UK Coal’s application in September 2007 when members said noise and dust would blight the area.

Mr Irving hopes to speak against the development at Wednesday’s meeting, at 10am, at Durham County Hall.

He said: “I have already registered the concerns of the hilltop villages.

“We have had other opencast here over the years and now we have wind turbines as well. People are overwhelmingly against this.”

The Campaign for Rural England, Billy Row Community Association and Wear Valley District Council are among 113 objectors, while 64 people have written in support.