RESIDENTS in the Rossendale locality of Weir say planned open-cast mining will destroy their village.

Seven years ago they successfully fought a similar mining application by R and A Young, from Wigan, when they formed the protest group Weir Against Moors Mining.

At a public meeting at Northern Primary School chaired by former Ribble Valley MP and village resident Michael Carr, about 50 people voiced their objections to the new plan.

Jack Grimes was a member of WAMM and is helping to co-ordinate the fight against the new application by Yorkshire firm Cobex.

He said: "In 1992 Lancashire County Council rejected the application from R and A Young and people thought, because it had been rejected on sound planning grounds, it had gone away forever. LCC decided the proposals would have an unacceptable impact on wildlife on the moor and would pollute ground water. That hasn't changed in seven years and I have a letter from the then chairman of LCC, Louise Ellman, who assured us that protecting the landscape was one of the council's major priorities. I hope that hasn't changed."

Mr Grimes said the application to work 242,000 tonnes of coal and 308,000 tonnes of clay would decimate the moor.

"The coal that would be extracted is very poor quality and high in sulphur and would need to be blended," he said. "They take away the clay and we are just left with a big hole - we have enough tips in Rossendale already."

He urged residents not to rest on their laurels and to write in and object now.

People who use the moor say it was just starting to restore itself 20 years after it had last been mined.

County councillors have made a site visit and will probably determine the application on February 2. Objectors have 21 days to voice their opinion, but a spokesman for LCC said letters would be accepted up to the date of the meeting.

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