Local authority: Northumberland County Council

Postcode of nearby property: NE23 8AU

Site area: c400 hectares (c988 acres) – including the 19 hectare (47 acre) Northumberlandia Landform Park

Need for coal: Coal is a valuable mineral resource which is used for a variety of purposes including iron and steel manufacture; cement manufacture; coke manufacture; domestic heat generation; sugar production; food and beverage production; chemicals production; patent fuel manufacture (smokeless briquettes); carbon fibre products manufacture and other uses; as well as electricity generation. Over the last decade, every year around 9 million tonnes of coal has been needed in the UK for non-electricity generation purposes; demand for coal for electricity generation was 14.5 million tonnes in 2017.

If we do not produce our own coal in the UK we simply import more from countries such as Russia, the USA, Colombia and Australia which produces more CO2 via its transportation than coal produced in the UK.

Site duration: Coal production until February 2020.  Fully restored by Autumn 2022.