Controversial mining operation gets under way; SCORES OF WAGONS TAKING COAL FROM OPENCAST SITE DAILY.

Byline: By PETER TAYLOR

THE last pits closed decades ago but now coal is flowing out of one area of the North East again.

Its extraction from the Shotton opencast mine at Cramlington has finally started after years in the planning stages and a bitter battle over whether it should take place at all.

Up to 150 waggons a day are shifting coal and 57,000 tonnes of it had been transported to various customers by the start of this week.

When mining company the Banks Group applied for planning permission more than three years ago to open the giant mine on 750 acres of land between Cramlington and the A1, it sparked a huge controversy.

The bid to dig 3.4 million tonnes of coal was opposed by 2,500 residents and a protest group was set up - Scram, the Support Cramlington Residents Against Mining campaign - by local residents Kieran Kelly and Tony Ives.

They were joined in their opposition by the North East Assembly and Blyth Valley Council, who claimed it would spoil the local environment and deal a major blow to the economy.

They argued that if the plan was given the go-ahead it could mean 10 years of dust, noise and disruption for families living near the site.

They thought their campaign had paid off in July 2006, when Northumberland County Council threw out the plans.

But the Banks Group appealed, arguing that the decision could have serious implications for Alcan's 670-job smelting and power complex at nearby Lynemouth, which needed a secure local coal supply.

Sixteen months later, after a public inquiry, Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears accepted the recommendation of her planning inspector, Simon Gibbs, and overturned last year's refusal of permission. Now the huge operation is in full flow and lorries are trundling out of the site daily loaded with coal, with little sign of protest.

A Banks spokesman said: "We started coal production.

"The Shotton surface mine will operate from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and from 7am until 1pm on Saturday.

"The planning condition will allow for maintenance of the plant to be conducted on weekends and bank holidays."

Archeologists from Tyne & Wear Museums are carrying out a dig on part of the site and so far have found signs of Iron Age roundhouses and a pottery kiln from medieval times.

The eight-year project also includes plans for a lasting legacy in the form of the Northumberlandia earth sculpture - a 300m-long figure of a naked, reclining female to be created on completion of the opencast workings.

Scram treasurer Bill Cross said: "We haven't had a meeting since the public inquiry.

"I feel let down and like everybody else in Cramlington I am fed-up with the way it went to the Government inspector who decided the other way. We haven't got a clue how it got the go-ahead. As far as I'm concerned, the inquiry was a total waste of time."

CAPTION(S):

CAMPAIGN: Kieran Kelly and wife Lynne fought the plan: BUSY: Some 3.4 million tonnes of coal will be extracted at Shotton over eight years