A CONTROVERSIAL bid to sink an opencast mine in the heart of the National Forest is to feature in a prime time BBC television programme.
UK Coal’s plan to mine 1.5 millions tonnes of coal at the Minorca site, off Gallows Lane, near Measham, will be spotlighted on Sunday, August 15, on Countryfile.
The programme will give up to five million viewers the chance to learn about the proposed scheme when it is used as a case study during an investigation into opencast mine applications by reporter John Craven.
To make the feature, the veteran journalist and his crew visited locations surrounding the Minorca site and filmed UK Coal’s Lounge site near Ashby, said by protesters to be awaiting restoration despite last being used six years ago.
Steve Leary, a representative of the Minorca Opencast Protest Group (MOPG), was interviewed and the Countryfile team filmed a MOPG meeting involving him and North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen, Joanna Crane, Sue Morrell, Terry Morrell and Brian Moseley.
Included in this piece was the campaigners’ discussion of the proposal’s potential impact on the River Mease Special Area of Conservation.
Mr Leary said: “When the researcher from the programme first contacted me early in July to say the team was interested in doing a story for the programme, I could not believe it.
“We had also learned that UK Coal had just submitted another 600-page document in support of its application.
“It then seemed that we would have to give the opportunity for some national publicity for our cause a miss as, at the time, we were expecting to have to get our new set of objections ready for a meeting of Leicestershire County Council’s regulatory control and development board meeting on August 15 — already a really tight timetable.
“Luckily for us, almost immediately the council postponed the earliest possible date for deciding this application to September 16, which gave us more time to prepare our new set of objections and get fresh letters sent by our members and supporters to the councils concerned.
“In addition, we now know that we will have time to prepare to lobby and speak at the various meetings where this issue is to be on the agenda again.
“So I then indicated to Countryfile that we would be delighted to help them with the programme in any way possible. The result was that they came to the area for three hours.”
