Partner Article

North East colliery to reopen?

Three firms have expressed interest in reopening a closed Northumberland coal mine. Whittle Colliery near Alnwick will be auctioned in May at a guide price of £4m.

Three companies have inquired about bidding for the 56-acre site to reopen it as a mine, a spokesman for auctioneers Colliers CRE said. The site, which closed in 1997, has planning consent for coal extraction until 2019.

Simon Rigall, head auctioneer at Colliers CRE, said: “We did not expect interest from coal mining operations but we have had approaches from two UK companies and a firm in Spain. “The demand for energy from China and India has pushed the price of all raw products up and it’s certainly this which has brought it to a head.”

Alnwick District Council said any application to reopen the mine would be subject to a condition for environmental restoration once extraction had finished.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .