South Yorkshire Times, November 3rd, 1951
Opencast Repreive for Bolton Site Farm And Housing Site
The Ministry of Fuel and Power have abandoned their proposal to start more open cast coal workings at Bolton-on-Dearne. Their decision follows strong protests from Dearne Urban Council backed by Mr. H. E. Holmes (local M.P. and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fuel and Power) and Town and Country Planning officials.
Areas threatened with opencast coal workings totalled 96 acres of farm-land and comprised a 61-acre site to the South of Ingsfield Lane and to the West of Dearne Road, a 35-acre site to the East of Dearne Road and South of Wath Road, High Street. The larger site was known as the Upper Mill Site and the smaller one as the Mount Pleasant site.
Big Relief
News of the Ministry’s decision came as a big relief this week to Mr. F. A. Bluff, a newcomer farmer to the district who stood to lose 19 acres of pasture land if the opencast proposal had been carried through.
“I am more than thankful,” he told a “South Yorkshire Times” reporter on Tuesday: “if they had outcropped this land, I should have had nowhere to graze my cattle. They would have had to trail over a mile to the nearest grass field. More than that, we have hedges and trees to look at now; if the outcroppers had come, they would have piled us up with debris mountains high.”
Mr. Bluff, who must be close on retiring age, took over land at Bolton and Goldthorpe in April this year. He himself had farmed in Derbyshire all his life, but wanted to see his son and son-in-law settled on a good farm. Scarcely were they installed before they heard of the Ministry’s proposals. When he was given news of the reverse decision, he commented: “That is a weight off my mind.”
This reverse decision is something of a triumph for Dearne Urban Council who have done all in their power to avert the original proposals. At their request Mr. H. E. Holmes M.P. inspected the site and heard the Council’s objections.
A meeting was arranged by Coun T. H. Barker (Chairman of the Council) Coun. J.W. Bedford (Highways Committee Chairman), Mr. W. H. Adams (Surveyor) and Town and County Planning officials. The Area Planning Officer of the West Riding County Council stated his full support and approval of Dearne Council development proposals for areas affected by the open cast proposals.
The Council’s principal objection was the fact that opencast workings on the sites would interfere with their plans for a major building development scheme They held that the opencast proposals would destroy the development of this part of the Urban District and asked for their withdrawal. This week Coun. Bedford expressed the gratitude of the Council for the help of Mr. Holmes. In announcing their agreement not to work the land, the Ministry of Fuel and Power wrote that their prospectors were still anxious to put down a small number of boreholes to obtain geographical information.