THE Government has bowed to massive public and political pressure and been forced to look again at controversial plans for a huge opencast mining scheme on the Atherton/Tyldesley boundary.

The Department for the Environment has confirmed that there will be a new public inquiry into the plan for opencast mining at Cutacre .

When RJB Mining (UK) Ltd revealed its plan to extract nearly two million tonnes of coal from the Cutacre site, thousands of residents were mobilised into action.

A public inquiry was held last August, and while the inspector was making his decision, critics of the scheme clamoured for a new public inquiry.

They said that tough new guidelines against opencast mining announced by the government needed to be looked at in relation to the Cutacre application.

Westhoughton councillor David Wilkinson said that while he welcomed the new inquiry, he was not satisfied that the inquiry would not be used as a 'cop out' for the government.

He said: "It's a good idea and all being well, according to the government's 10-point plan for opencast mines, Cutacre should be refused. I fear that under the old rules Cutacre would have been given the go-ahead because it is just a larger version of the Bag Lane and Gibb Field sites, which were given approval.

"What is a shame is that the people of Daisy Hill will not be afforded the luxury of a second public inquiry for the schemes near them. It is too late for them.

He went on: "What does worry me is that the Secretary of State has the power to refuse the application at Cutacre. He could have just turned it down without calling for a new inquiry.

"By holding a new inquiry we are talking about another nine to 12 months waiting for a decision. That's yet another year of uncertainty. Ideally I would have hoped that John Prescott would have had the courage of his convictions and refused it.

If at the end of the day this project is approved under the new government rules it will reveal their election promises to have been a sham."

During the 1997 election campaign, the then shadow Environment Minister Frank Dobson, gave a guarantee to Bolton West MP Ruth Kelly that opencast mining wouldn't go ahead on the site.

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