Opencast Mining (Hansard, 9 December 1982)

§ Mr. Les Huckfield
asked the Secretary of State for Energy to what extent he has a criterion of the number of objectors to a proposal to mine coal by opencast methods when he decides whether to order a public inquiry into that proposal.

§ Mr. John Moore
Under the first schedule to the Opencast Coal Act 1958, the Secretary of State is obliged to cause a public local inquiry to be held into an application for an authorisation under section 1 of the Act if relevant local authorities, or those with an interest in the relevant land—"statutory objectors"—object to the board's application and do not withdraw their objection. The Secretary of State also has a discretion to order a public inquiry in other cases where no statutory objections to the application are sustained. It has been my Department's practice in these cases to take into account the nature and weight of non-statutory objections, rather than simply their number, in determining whether it is appropriate to exercise this discretion in a particular case.

§ Mr. Les Huckfield
asked the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list the powers whereby either he or his inspectors conducting public inquiries can impose conditions on opencast mining working operations.

§ Mr. John Moore
Under section 2 of the Opencast Coal Act 1958, the Secretary of State may grant deemed planning consent for opencast coal operations and make this consent subject to such conditions as he may specify. The conditions must include conditions relating to the restoration of the land. These powers are exercisable only by the Secretary of State, as the inspector conducting an inquiry under the Act has no power to grant either an authorisation or deemed planning consent.

§ Mr. Les Huckfield
asked the Secretary of State for Energy whether he will publish details on an annual basis to the latest convenient date of the numbers of applications made by the National Coal Board's opencast executive for opencast mining, the number of public inquiries in each year and the numbers of applications granted and refused following such an inquiry.

§ Mr. John Moore
The information requested is as follows: