I would like to ask readers to give careful consideration to the views of the candidates standing for election to Leicestershire County Council on the council's Mineral Planning Policy, especially with regard to opencast coal.

The current policy leaves the whole of the area of the shallow coalfields in north west Leicestershire open to a possible opencast mine application being successful.

What is missing from these planning conditions is the automatic provision of a 500 metre buffer zone between where people live and the site of a working opencast mine. In January, the Welsh Assembly issued new guidance for opencast planning applications which introduced the requirement for a 500 metre buffer zone. Wales then joined Scotland, who had already issued similar guidance in providing greater protection for their citizens from the risks associated with opencast coal mining.

The consequence of this is to make areas of England with coal, such as Leicestershire, which do not have the same degree of protection that Wales and Scotland now automatically enjoy, more vulnerable to opencast mining. This is because once generated, electricity can be transmitted back to Scotland and Wales.

The new county council could take a major step to protect the quality of life of its residents and their health and to preserve the landscape and natural life of Leicestershire if each newly elected councillor was already pledged to urgently reform Leicestershire's Mineral Planning Policy to include a 500 metre buffer zone.

Some local residents living around the proposed Minorca opencast site near Measham already know what feeling vulnerable to such a planning application means. We do not want other communities to face a similar prospect in the future.

This is why we are asking all those eligible to vote to write to their local candidates on this issue so that they know where each candidate stands on this issue before the elections on June 4.

Steve Leary, chairperson, Minorca Opencast Protest Group.