CONCERNED residents from three boroughs are expected at a public meeting to thrash out issues surrounding a planned 67-acre coal mine on moorland above their homes.

The meeting in Todmorden Town Hall on October 4 will discuss an application by Wakefield company Corbex, for permission to remove 500,000 tons of coal from Heald Moor above Burnley, Bacup and Todmorden.

Burnley council economic and property committee chairman Tony Harrison said the meeting had been arranged because of mounting concern among residents.

He added that a representative of the company, which is seeking planning permission from Lancashire County Council, would be among the speakers at the public meeting which starts at 7pm.

This week Burnley MP Peter Pike joined Rossendale residents in objecting to the proposal "in the strongest possible way".

In a letter to planning chiefs he says that even if work started it would not be finished and the site would be left a mess.

He fears the development would wreck an area of beautiful countryside.

"The work would be seriously damaging to the environment and the proposal should be rejected."

Mr Pike joined a successful campaign to prevent mining on Heald Moor six years ago and believes the same objections apply to the new application.

A spokesman for the applicants said the company had been working closely with the Environment Agency and stressed the development involved a new, environmentally-friendly form of mining.

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