Lib Dem Councillors led a successful campaign to have plans to extend an opencast coalmine rejected.

Durham County Council’s Planning Committee this morning voted to reject Banks Group’s application to develop the existing site between Dipton and Leadgate.

If approved the firm would have been able to remove a further 90,000 tonnes of coal.

The application was rejected on the grounds that the environmental impacts of the scheme.

Lib Dem Councillor Mark Wilkes, who proposed the motion to refuse the opencast, said:

“Is it in the national interest to pump out more co2 and other pollutants into the atmosphere and stymie the development of alternative technologies?

“The Government have committed to a Clean Steel Fund. We have to protect the local community and the nation from the adverse environmental impacts.”

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