HC Deb 19 January 1994 vol 235 cc882-3
7. Mr. Mike O'Brien

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he proposes to announce new minerals planning guidance on opencast extraction.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Tony Baldry)

We published revised planning guidelines for public consultation on 14 December. The guidelines deal with both deep mine and opencast coal and with the disposal of colliery spoil.

Mr. O'Brien

I thank the Secretary of State for his decision in the Birch Copice case, when he refused the application for opencast mining and overruled the public inquiry. May I remind the Minister that 20,000 homes in my constituency are still threatened by the prospect of opencast? Many of the people who live there are former miners and face not only the loss of their jobs but the potential destruction of their environment. Is not it time that he gave local people a veto and a right to say no to opencast despoiling their environment?

Mr. Baldry

In those circumstances, I think that the hon. Gentleman's constituents will welcome the new guidelines, which have gone out to consultation, because they mark a distinct shift. They have withdrawn the strong presumption in favour of opencast coal development that existed previously and have replaced it with a test of environmental acceptability.

Mr. Wells

May I congratulate my hon. Friend on the new guidelines on mineral extraction and ask when he will introduce in the House the orders necessary to put those guidelines into practice?

Mr. Baldry

They are out for consultation, which closes at the end of March. Given their acceptance and welcome in the House, I hope that hon. Members will make that clear as part of the consultation process.

Mr. Chris Smith

The Minister must, however, agree that what he wrote into the new draft planning guidelines on opencast mining in December is a presumption not against opencasting, but in favour of it. The guidelines state: It would be against the national interest to refuse permission", and only then go on to apply an environmental test. Does not the Minister realise that opencast mining despoils the countryside, damages the local environment and helps to destroy our national deep mine coal industry? Should not there be a strong presumption—far stronger than he has put in this document—against new opencast mining, rather than the green light that the Government seem intent on giving?

Mr. Baldry

Any reasonable person who reads the guidelines will see that they make it clear that where the impact of opencasting would have particularly adverse effects on the environment and the quality of life for local people, permission should not be given unless the development would produce overriding benefits. The guidelines strike a balance between the economic importance of opencast coal and the protection of the environment. It is worth the House recalling that when the socialist Government nationalised the coal industry they did not have any planning regime whatever for opencast mining.