Content area
Full Text
Coal extraction could pay for site clean-up
Paul Whitehouse
COAL could be extracted again from a South Yorkshire colliery in a scheme to finance the restoration of the site, which closed more than 30 years ago.
Bullcroft Colliery in Doncaster was closed in 1970 and the National Coal Board filled in its shafts, cleared the site and performed some reclamation work before selling the site to the now disbanded South Yorkshire County Council (SYCC) several years later.
The county council did more work on the site, achieving what Doncaster Council describes as "a low quality agricultural standard of restoration". The site passed to Doncaster in the 1980s when the SYCC was abolished.
The site covers 30 hectares (74 acres) and since then Doncaster Council has tried several approaches to get financial support for restoration work, aimed at opening up the land for greater public use by the nearby communities of Carcroft and Skellow.
Its own attempts at improving the site have proved unsuccessful, the blame...