Local authority: Northumberland County Council
Postcode of nearby property: NE23 8AU
Site status: Operational
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 or so around 9million tonnes per annum of coal has been needed in the UK for non-electricity generation purposes; demand for coal for electricity generation was 14.5million 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 2018. Restored by the end of around 2019
Jobs: 150 jobs
Traffic movements: Up to 190 coal wagons per day
Restoration: Northumberlandia landform park. In addition to the landform park when the site is fully restored there will be new public access and improved wildlife corridors, new planting and improved agricultural land
History: Banks Mining has been extracting coal from this site since 2008
Banks Community Fund: Please click the following link for information abut the Banks Community Fund
Downloads:
Shotton Community Newsletter, December 2017
Shotton & Brenkley Lane Community Update, August 2015