COMMUNITIES engaged in coal mining disputes have been warned over potential community fund schemes.

The Hartleyburn community fought for more than a decade to prevent land at Halton Lea Gate within 50 metres of residents’ houses becoming an opencast mine.

However, the application was accepted with the condition that the mining company, HM Project Development, contribute to a Community Fund 50p a tonne for the 140,000 tonnes of coal it planned to mine.

The fund was set up as a form of recompense for the noise and disruption caused to local residents.

But the company entered administration earlier this year before work to restore the land had started.

Resident, David Fruin, said Hartleyburn and Coanwood parish councils, alongside Farlam in Cumbria, had agreed to a lower sum of just £14,000, compared to the initial £70,000, and were told the funds could be paid within weeks.

He added that no funds had been paid and the the councils were now waiting to hear if negotiations between the administrators and Northumberland County Council would lead to any money being paid into the fund.

Mr Fruin said: “Where communities are being affected by disruption caused by mining or similar operations, they should demand that funds to be paid on a staged basis, as the mining or quarrying occurs, for example, quarterly in arrears. This would avoid the situation which the small communities along the Northumberland-Cumbria border have now experienced.”

In April, Benjamin Wiles, of Duff & Phelps administrators, expressed his desire to continue working with the county council and local community on the development of the high profile opencast mining operation

He said: “It is our intention to work closely with officers from the county council and other stakeholders to secure the future of the operation given its impact on the local community.

“We hope that we are able to engage with the local community to ensure the strategy we adopt for the mine has a more positive result for all stakeholders.”