“I am sorry, but a company in dire situation cannot be trusted to set aside some money to restore a site in 5 years. They need their cash flow as any company. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the site will be returned to its original state.

Also, how can they afford £1.2 million? That's a mystery. They are just trying to bribe the local residents!”

“Why do we have to have our lives ruined and the health of our families put at risk just so that UK Coal can line their greedy pockets. My son is 6 months old and if this opencast goes ahead he faces a significantly increased risk of lung disease later on in life, if there was not a risk thev local school would not be considered a "sensitive receptor". My son and all the other children of Measham deserve better than this and Leicestershire County Council have a duty to protect them above anything else, and they can do this by simply refusing the application. The bribe of £1.2m towards the canal and scare mongering about "lights out" does not and will never be reasons to justify the risk to the health of our children. UK Coal get the message "WE DO NOT WANT YOUR OPENCAST" not now or ever!!”

“Interesting to note, about the 50 Jobs and keeping the lights burning, well the hard facts is that these Jobs are for skilled workers, and will have to travell as much as50-60 miles each mainly daily, adding to the already busy roads, and for what the destruction of prime agriculture land, road,dust and light polution.Potential polluting the rivers and brooks, endangering the ressidents and the school children, not to mention the wildlife, "For What" 2 months of Coal for the second biggest polluting Power Station in the Country. Lets keep this in prospective. Its unsafe its dangerous and certainly not required for the Heart Of The National forest. A more permantent solution would be wind Turbines not a short term fix .”

“Hello Old King Coal

UK Coal could reopen Harworth pit in Yorkshire rather than keep spending £3m a year keeping it mothballed. In one year that would produce more coal than the Minorca Surface Mine will produce over its lifetime.

No, we are not all 'Birmignham Nimbies' (and casting slurs on people's motives is a cheap form of debate). We have 300 members in MOPG - a very mixed membership from old ex Coalminers through to Solicitors, many of whom are local born and bred.

As for 'doing no harm' look at what UK Coal have not done outside Ashby, at the Lounge site, classed as 'derelict' by a Planning Inspector becuase UK Coal have not honoured the planning obligation they entered into to restore it. No harm - pull the other leg”

“UK Coal just don't get it, do they? The north-western boundary of this unsustainable proposal will only be 175 metres or so away from the houses in Measham's Greenfield Road and within coughing and spitting distance of the primary school. Earth bunding around the proposal site doesn't actually make all that much difference to noise as sound tends to refract over the top. If this travesty is allowed to go ahead it will be hell for Measham, particularly the eastern side of the village. Let's hope that Leicestershire County Council recognises the need to reduce fossil carbon emissions and that those voting on this proposal on our behalf have the wit to see through the flim-flam. Also, since this is a major application, residents should be allowed more than 21 days to weigh up the colossal amount of printed material UK Coal have added to their original application file. I would guess that is the plan though - who on Earth can wade through this amount of information after a day's work and taking care of family matters? I guess councillors must be superhuman...”

“Good for Uk Coal, I support this scheme this coal is needed so that the lights dont go out in the followinfg winters. How would all you protesters like it if you had no lights in winter???You protesters are just aload of Birmingham nimbys who are worried that their house price will drop . There has been plenty of opencasting in the area in the past and it did no harm.

And I know what I am talking about having lived in the area all my life and worked for the Coall Board for 14 years.”

“Mr. Oliver yet again demonstrates in his own particular oily, repetitive, and frankly boring rhetoric why he is so fond of wearing that spotted bow-tie. He is clearly between other clowning performances, doubtless where the bow-tie spins around and he blows smoke out of his ears, the same smoke he is now trying to blow into the eyes of the people of Measham and their elected representatives.
This supporting documentation is a meaningless sop; we all know what opencast mining means to the people who live near it. The rest of this rubbish is no more than a scandalous attempt at a bribe-which will never compensate for the one thing you will lose, and that is your quality of life.
As for extensions to the site, it wouldn¿t matter if this had been denied, as UK Coal simply lies through it teeth on this subject as well, and that is why the Lodge House site in Derbyshire now faces two, not one extension applications repeatedly denied in the past.”

“Speaking from the harsh experience of having one of UK Coal's sites operating 1km away at this minute, whereby I can hear the environmental destruction through closed double-glazed windows, I can assure you that these "expert" reports are not worth the paper they are written upon. There is nothing independent in such material WHATSOEVER as they are commissioned and financed by the applicant. I am yet to see a single one of these reports that is ever sceptical of UK Coal's plans, and I have read dozens and dozens; even common sense empirical grounds for objections are glossed-over, insultingly ignoring what people are put through by these local disaster areas. These documents are produced entirely in accordance with the previous government's MPS2 guidance policy on ¿exactly what to say if you want to get opencast permission¿. However, what is said in these flights of fancy, what is done on site, and what the results are for local residents are entirely different to what is stated therein, which is solely for the benefit of planning committees and government inspectors who do not have to live with an opencast mine. UK Coal as a mining company is a busted-flush, and that is why it has just sacked its CEO and Chairman. Its financial position is parlous, and its clearly unaffordable generosity in this case will probably lead to another badly/unrestored site which it can later hawk-off to its property development division, in the hope of gleaning a profit not deliverable by the overall activities of the mining division.”

“Quote ¿UK Coal spokesman Stuart Oliver said: "It has been compiled by a range of independent experts and covers everything from noise, dust, ecology, geology and hydrology relating to the operation of the site.¿ - are these the same experts that worked on the original amateurish submission?
Quote "The scheme will also create 50 jobs during the four-year life of the mine and it's been calculated will contribute over £9 million to the area's economy ¿ including a significant contribution to business rates in a time of recession." ¿ We have been here before ¿ it wont create 50 new jobs, it will transfer people from other sites. How is it going to contribute £9M to the area ¿ are they going to give it to us? What about the resident¿s rates that will be affected by this ¿ again the residents will have to bear the social, health and economic brunt of UK Coal in times of recession.

To MR Oliver - If your supplementary package is so good this time them why did you not offer it originally - were you trying to rip off the local people then like you are still trying to do now?

Quote "In addition, UK Coal is offering to build a winter water storage lake to alleviate flooding problems in the area." - WHAT FLODDING PROBLEMS !!! You are going to create a greater potential for flooding by introducing a lake.

Quote "The firm said it will also provide a £150,000 fund to be spent on other environmental and community projects in the area." - Is that pathetic amount all you can give?

Quote "It includes the offer of £1.28 million, in payment or in kind, towards restoration work on the county council's Ashby Canal restoration project at Measham." - Why do you keep plugging this, apart from trying to bribe the village. Yes SOME people would like the canal to happen and it will eventually without the UK Coal money. Do not take the people for fools.

What UK Coal is - is desperate. They are in a poor financial position with the need for coal on the decline rapidly. They are trying to fool the residents by offering a little more money (but still a pittance) and trying to "guild the lily" where the canal is concerned.
What I have never heard from UK Coal is that they will NEVER apply for an extension, in fact quite the opposite at the open meeting held earlier this year when Stuart Oliver and his colleagues CATAGORICALLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM that they would not apply for an extension.
Irrespective of what they say the fact is that UK Coal have not answered and of the concerns raised by the people or by MOPG who are acting on behalf of the people. We do not need this so why should we accept it, - it¿s a simple question?

The people of Measham should rally behind MOPG and support Andrew Bridgen`s campaign for a change in the law so that companies such as UK Coal cannot just ride roughshod over the people. They know if this law is passed then they will actually have to actually ¿work¿ for future open casting issues.

A very toiletry saying springs to mind ¿ and UK Coal are full of it.”

“You could ask, how many, of the Planning Committee who will decide the fate of this project, live within 500 metres of an open cast mining operation.”