Purpose of No2Coal

Posted on May 10, 2010 by

The No2Coal website has been created by residents of Wolsingham, County Durham (UK) to protest against the proposed siting of a Rail based coal depot within the village boundary.

On the 14th December 2009 Weardale Railways and UK Coal held an exhibition attempting to promote the creation of an unnecessary coal disposal point at the Wolsingham facility of the Weardale Railway in County Durham.

A UK Coal operated Opencast mining facility at Sunniside (5 miles North East of Wolsingham) has existing planning permission to transport coal by the A68 to Drax power station in Yorkshire.  The Weardale Railway proposal intends to vary this route to bring the coal to Wolsingham, stock pile it and then ship it away by rail.

The site in question is less than 250 metres from houses at the adjacent Attwood Terrace and represents a potential blight on the health and prosperity of residents in all of the East End of the village of Wolsingham.

The planned facility also has the potential to be a detriment to the village as a whole when additional transportation contracts are won.

This website outlines their proposal and sets out arguments against it.  We are not fighting Weardale Railway and understand its role in promoting tourism for the area.

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Legal challenge to coal depot decision

Posted on October 6, 2010 by

Counsel says “DCC issued unlawful planning permission”

Following the granting of planning permission for a coal disposal point in Wolsingham, County Durham residents have continued their resistance through legal channels.

After advice from their solicitor at Ward-Hadaway community representatives sought the opinion of a respected barrister at Kings Chambers, Manchester and Leeds as to whether the planning judgement could be brought to judicial review.

It is the considered opinion of the barrister that there are several areas of judicial failure on the part of Durham County Council that render the issuing of planning permission unlawful.

A Pre-Action Protocol letter has been sent to the Head of Planning and the legal department at Durham
County Council, along with a courtesy copy to Weardale Railways. This letter details the judicial failures and the outcomes expected.

The barrister’s opinion has highlighted the following issues of grave concern for residents of Wolsingham.

As the planning permission currently stands Weardale Railway can, without public consultation and by simple letter to Durham County Council:

1) Operate the site for more than 4 years
2) Extend their daily operating hours for any phase of the project
3) Erect new buildings and fixed plant or machinery on site
4) Store coal on site for more than four years and possibly in perpetuity

In addition, the extensive use of the phrase “unless otherwise agreed in writing with the MPA” has legal precedent as being unlawful and the planning permission can thus be quashed unless each instance of that phrase is removed and the permission re-issued.

Of great concern is that the names of the Council officers who issued an important Screening Opinion have been blanked out on the official documents. This, potentially, means the Screening Opinion was issued unlawfully.

Fund raising activities are ongoing, the next event being a coffee morning at Wolsingham Town Hall on Saturday October 9th. Further events are planned for the coming months. No2Coal intend to see this fight to its conclusion.

History
No2Coal are a community action group setup in Wolsingham, County Durham to fight plans to operate a coal disposal point within their village. Weardale Railway intends to run hundreds of 44 tonne lorries into the village everyday and store thousands of tonnes of coal less than 300 metres from family homes. Despite the proposal receiving planning permission from Durham County Council on August 6th 2010 No2Coal are continuing their valid and robust resistance through legal channels.

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Complaint to Durham County Council

Posted on August 6, 2010 by

The attached PDF is complaint sent to Durham County Council regarding the application and the actual committee meeting. Durham. Please use this as the basis for any complaint you wish to make.

If you have received a response topic not included in the letter let us know.

Download the PDF complaint

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Railway Vandalism

Posted on May 26, 2010 by

It has been brought to our attention that some persons have been vandalising Railway property.

As far as No2Coal is concerned we want to strongly condemn any such actions and repudiate any responsibility. We are six professional people who would never condone or encourage such criminal behaviour and those responsible will have to take responsibility for their own actions. Likewise anyone accusing us directly will have to face any likely consequences.

To our supporters and all those who want to protect Wolsingham residents and the dale from a future blighted by coal and pollution, we say a big thank you and please keep up the good work. This committee will continue to object and try to save an area renowned for its scenery and tourism for future generations to enjoy. The Railway has its place in that future and it may need to be a carrier of freight but we cannot stand by and let this depot be put entirely in the wrong place. We have said from the beginning that we are not fighting the Railway…….we are fighting a plan which will bring no benefits to Wolsingham and will blight the lives of many residents whose views are being marginalised and ignored.

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Council extends application deadline

Posted on May 19, 2010 by

The level of opposition to, and the criticisms made of, the coal depot application have meant that the Planning Officer has had to ask for significant amounts of additional information from Weardale Railway.

Much of the information is related to ecological impact and due to the time it takes to collate what is required the Planning officer has had to request a two month extension to the current application deadline.

More importantly the Area Planning Policy Team have advised the Planning Officer to re-advertise the application.  This is why new notices have been pinned to lampposts around Wolsingham.  The reason for re-advertising is to alert the public that the application goes against the Local Development Plan.

Specifically, Policy I6 of the Wear Valley District Local Plan (WVDLP) which states that the Wolsingham Steelworks site “be reserved and developed as local industrial site but the storage and distribution of minerals will not be allowed” is being contravened.  Durham County Council advisers are using minerals specific planning policy to negate the local plan.

As part of the re-advertisement the initial 21 day consultation period is reset and further protestation can be made to the Planning Department at Durham County Council.  We urge you to do so and highlight your support of the I6 policy.  Further information can be found in the Lend a Hand section of this website.

The extension also means the application is unlikely to be put before planning committee before July 2010.

This gives us a lot more time to continue the opposition and gather more evidence of the detrimental impact the depot will have on our village.  The effects of this proposal on the ecology and the environment are proving to be crucial and the probable pollution of the river is of huge concern to many agencies  and interested groups.

Fighting this application has been a long haul so far and a tremendous amount of work and investigation has been carried out. We are indebted to all the people who have helped us and given freely of their time and expertise.

It is not over yet and will not be for a long while to come but we don’t intend to stop now. We have made great progress and ask for your continued support and patience.

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