CAMPAIGNERS have demanded answers to questions which still hang over plans to start mining coal again on the Atherton and Tyldesley borders.

Councillors hope soon to meet with UK Coal which wants to resurrect an opencast mining project at Cutacre which includes the giant coal mining spoil heap south of the A6 at Middle Hulton, known to many as the Bluebell rucks.

The focal point of the 800 acre site is the towering mountains of colliery waste which in the 1970s earned it a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest man-made spoil heap in Europe.

UK Coal revealed last week that the surging price of coal had once again made the scheme viable and have held talks with planning bosses to get the scheme under way as early as 2006.

Coal bosses appeared to have scaled down plans for open-cast mining at the Cutacre site to make way instead for a huge business park.

But a surge in coal prices in the last 18 months put the scheme back on track.

Site owners, UK Coal, says proposals to develop the land for commercial and industrial use are still at the heart of its long-term plans but now feels that mining could be more profitable than it had hoped.

UK Coal spokesman Stuart Oliver said: "Market conditions have changed and opportunities for the coal industry in the UK have improved considerably in the last 12 months.

"The fact is that some mining schemes now look much more profitable than they did a year or 18 months ago.

"There will be nothing like the 10 or 11 year scheme that was first envisaged when we bought the site from British Coal and we still intend to develop the site to provide long-term job opportunities."

The mining operation was due to start as early as spring 2002 but was shelved after a dip in coal prices.

Councils in Wigan, Bolton and Salford - the three boroughs which the 322 hectare site spans - have been informed on the recent changes and the revived interest in mining.

But, despite long-running public opposition to mining, the councils are powerless to stop the plan after UK Coal won permission to mine the site at a public inquiry in 2001.

The go-ahead came at the end of a 20-year legal battle.

Residents fought UK Coal, complaining that the plan would cause noise, dust and vibrations.

Howard Barritt, head of planning control, said UK Coal had been in touch with officers to discuss conditions of the permission such as noise and protection of wildlife but added that surveys on the land could take two years before the operation could start.

But Cllr Alan Walsh, who represents the Hulton ward on Bolton Council, fears roads in the area would be swamped with heavy traffic unless a proposed rail link is added to the site before mining starts.

A rail link could cost £7 million and Network Rail say work to create a spur from the line which runs between Atherton and Walkden could take several years to build because of other priorities.

Cllr Walsh said shipping all of the coal out by road would be unacceptable.

"The information we received six or nine months ago was that the scheme would be scaled down and that seemed to acceptable," he said.

"But now it has come back and there is a great deal of worry.

"If all of the coal has to be taken out by road then the situation changes considerably again.

"Unfortunately, UK Coal already has permission to mine the area but I would like to sit down with the council and the company to find out exactly what their plans are."