A PLANNING inspector who oversaw a public inquiry into plans for an opencast will visit a working mine tomorrow (Wednesday, November 5).
Kathleen Ellison led a three-week inquiry into energy firm UK Coal’s plans to extract coal from a site at Bradley, near Consett, County Durham, which ended last month.
Ms Ellison is expected to deliver her decision in January or February.
Tomorrow (Wednesday, November 5), she will visit UK Coal’s Potland Burn opencast, near Ashington, Northumberland, with some of the objectors in order to see a mine operating.
The trip follows a visit to the Bradley site last week.
Durham County Council refused permission for the opencast three years ago, a decision upheld by a planning inspector following a public inquiry in late 2011.
However, a Hugh Court judge quashed the inspector’s findings, triggering a new inquiry, held at Leadgate Workmen’s Social Club and Institute.
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