Plans for opencast coal mining given short shrift by protesters

Calls have already been made for the proposals which would see 190,000 tonnes of coal pulled from the ground near the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield.

Developer Gordon Harrison Ltd wants to extract the coal, along with 40,000 tonnes of fireclay from the site off Litherop Lane, Clayton West, in neighbouring Kirklees, over two and a half years.

Richard Graham, of the Skelmanthorpe Community Action Group, in Huddersfield, said: “If this mining development goes ahead it will affect everyone for miles around, not just the people of Cayton West. Trucks carrying coal and clay will be travelling local roads for two years and the scar on the landscape will be with us for years ahead.

“Do we really want a site like this close to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and at the entrance to the Pennine tourist area from the M1 and Wakefield?

“In the 1950’s there might have been some excuse for the devastation caused as the country struggled to recover from the Second World War. Yet there are claims that even then it was unnecessary and owed more to politics than real need.

“Today, there are plenty of alternative sources of coal, and the amount involved is small for the damage that will be done to extract it.”

The application will be considered by members of Kirklees Council but bosses at neighbouring Wakefield Council have already raised fears over the impact the plans could have on the green belt as well as on their proposals to invest in the nearby Bretton Hall Estate, which could see a new luxury hotel built at Bretton Hall and the creation of up to a 1,000 new jobs.

A recent report to the planning and highways committee said: “The Yorkshire Sculpture park is an internationally renowned site for arts and culture which is a visitor attraction of significance to the Wakefield economy and local catchment for employment.

“It is considered that the opencast proposals will detract from the value of Yorkshire Sculpture Park as an attractive, quiet place to enjoy leisure, recreation, education study and culture.”

It added: “The proposal is also damaging to the character and setting of the historic Bretton Hall estate which is currently being marketed for hotel, leisure and commercial uses which is expected to provide long term, sustainable employment for around 1,000 jobs.”

Last month Mark Barrett, of Silkstone Environmental Ltd, who represents the developers, said it would be inappropriate to comment on the plans at this stage due to ongoing consultation with Wakefield and Kirklees Councils.

However it is understood that the developers plan to restore the land following the mining operation. That would include planting hedgerows and building a bridleway.

The company has said 12 full-time jobs would be created, and this would lead to another 12 being created indirectly in the local community as well as another four part-time jobs.

Mr Graham said older residents of High Hoyland and Clayton West recall the opencast mining operations of the 1950s when large tracts of good farmland around High Hoyland and Clayton West were ripped up to get to the coal beneath.

He said: “The impact on the area was devastating.”

Grade II listed Bretton Hall was the home of Bretton Hall College from 1949 until 2001.

It was then a campus of the University of Leeds until 2007 before it was closed and ownership of the hall taken over by Wakefield Council.

Last year the sculpture park completed a £500,000 project to restore the historic Bretton lakes and woodland.

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