Banks Mining’s Shotton Triangle gets the go-ahead

Northumberland County Council approves planning application to mine additional 290,000 tonnes of coal

BANKS Mining’s planning application to mine around 290,000 additional tonnes of coal at a north-east surface mine, which will help sustain around 150 local jobs, has been approved by Northumberland County Council.

The family-owned firm had requested permission to work an additional area on the western side of its existing Shotton surface mine, which it has named Shotton Triangle.

Extraction will take two years from commencement to completion and will run concurrently with the existing site, which is located on the Blagdon Estate to the west of Cramlington.

No overall extension of time is required for the additional extraction, with restoration of the entire Shotton site still scheduled to be completed by October 2019.

A separate planning application regarding an area in the south-west of the Shotton site, known as Shotton South West, was approved by the County Council during the summer.

Mark Dowdall, Banks’ environment and community director, said: ‘We’re very pleased that the County Council has seen fit to allow us to extend our work by approving the Shotton Triangle planning application.

‘Coal will remain a central part of the UK’s energy mix for the foreseeable future, with production from appropriate domestic sites, such as Shotton and Brenkley Lane, being far more desirable from an economic, employment and environmental point of view than relying on imports from often-unstable overseas markets.

‘We have worked successfully in this part of Northumberland for more than three decades, and the Shotton Triangle and South West projects will help us reinforce our position as one of the county’s largest private sector employers.’