Local MP Mike O'Brien and Labour Councillors Left Red-Raced After ‘Opencast Mining’ Gaff

Local Labour MP Mike O’Brien, who is also Minister for Energy and Climate Change, was looking red-faced with embarrassment this week after it turned out that his own Government’s regulations are responsible for the threat of opencast coal mining at Shuttington village.

The MP has been agitating over the issue in the local press. Councillors of all parties have come together to fight against opencast mining returning to the area, but both the MP and Labour Councillor Mick Stanley have pointed the finger of blame at the County Council. They have been photographed standing in green fields looking concerned, and have handed out leaflets to local residents expressing their shock and concern over the inclusion of a potential opencast mining site in the County Mineral Core Strategy, claiming un-named ‘council officials’ had ‘invited UK Coal Ltd to say if they would like to opencast in the area.’ (From leaflet delivered in Polesworth Sun 6 April 2009, with quotes and photographs from Cllr Mick Stanley and Mike O’Brien MP).

But they were left looking foolish after local Conservatives, who are also opposed to opencast mining in the area, pointed out that the County Council had no choice but to include the site in the planning document as a direct result of rules brought in by John Prescott, and by various other ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government. They also pointed out that this consultation document was approved by an all party group of Warwickshire councillors – including Labour Councillors Mick Jones and Pat Henry.

Mike O’Brien was also facing questions this week over his record in helping to force through opencast mining against the wishes of local communities elsewhere in the country when he was Energy Minister.

Mr O’Brien’s department has approved numerous opencast applications across the country over the past few years, and have over-ruled the objections of local County Councils on more than one occasion.

A recent Panorama programme highlighted Mr O’Brien’s role in pushing through the controversial opencast mine at Ffos-y-fran in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. Mr O’Brien was criticised at the time for hypocrisy after opposing opencast mining in his own constituency, but writing a letter to Welsh Assembly Members urging them to over-rule local opinion in South Wales. He claimed at the time that the need for coal outweighed local residents’ concerns.

Speaking from Shuttington today, former soldier and Conservative Parliamentary Candidate Dan Byles said, “The idea that Shuttington Village is a suitable location for opencast coal mining is ridiculous. It would devastate the local area and blight the lives of thousands of local people. Local councillors from all parties have rightly come together to oppose this, and to fight to have the site removed from the Mineral Core Strategy consultation document.

“But the question must be asked – why do central Government rules and regulations impose such appalling situations on local people? Why has the Government imposed opencast coal mining, against the wishes of local communities, in places such as South Wales, Derbyshire and Leicestershire? And why have these rigid rules led to Warwickshire County Council having no choice over including Shuttington as a potential opencast mining site in the Mineral Core Strategy consultation?

“We must do all we can to remove this immediate threat. But we must do more. We must remove a system of Government which imposes such top down solutions on local communities, over ruling democratically elected councils.

“It is a bit sad to once again see our local Labour MP Mike O’Brien opposing his own Government’s policies here in North Warwickshire, which he supports elsewhere in the country. He did it over Post Offices – voting in Parliament to close them while crying crocodile tears over the loss of nine branches locally. Now he is doing it over opencast – standing in green fields looking jolly concerned when it is his own Government’s regulation that have created this threat, and while his own Government Department forces unwanted opencast mines on other communites up and down the country.

“The word hypocrite gets bandied around a lot in politics. But sometimes, it’s because it’s true.”