PLANS for an “unwanted” opencast coal mine on the outskirts of Newcastle have been categorically rejected.
City councillors have issued a resounding "no" to the Banks Group’s proposals to turn more than 250 acres of green belt land at Dewley Hill, near Throckley, into a new mining operation.
At a three-hour online hearing on Friday morning, Newcastle City Council’s planning committee voted unanimously, 11-0, to refuse permission for the hugely contentious scheme.
The plans could have seen 800,000 tonnes of coal and 400,000 tonnes of fireclay, for the neighbouring Throckley brickworks, extracted from the green space on the western edge of the city.