Post by John on Jul 26, 2008 16:43:21 GMT -5
From the Nottingham Evening Post.
HIGH HOPES FOR NOTTS PIT SITES REGENERATION
8 readers have commented on this story. Click here to read their views.
09:00 - 30 June 2008
Forty years ago miners and their families were packing up their lives in north-east England and Scotland and moving to National Coal Board housing estates in Cotgrave, Calverton, Ollerton, Forest Town and Clipstone.
But just two generations later the thriving coal industry they moved to work in, after losing their jobs due to pit closures, had all but disappeared.
Today just three Notts pits remain: Thoresby, which has a secure future until 2018, moth-balled Harworth, which could reopen after a £5m coal seam investigation and Welbeck, set for closure next year.
More than 20 pits have closed in the county since the end of the 1984 miners strike.
English Partnership's National Coalfield Programme, working with the East Midlands Development Agency, aims to revitalise former coalfield sites across Notts through public and private sector investment.
Funding from the programme has created 600 jobs at Sherwood Energy Village, Ollerton, 1,850 jobs at Manton Colliery and Manton Woods sites and 400 at Shireoaks, near Worksop.
Gedling and Cotgrave collieries are set for re-development.
Emda's executive director of regeneration Diana Gilhespysaid: "Regenerating our former coalfields has been, and will continue to be a very challenging task because of the need to find innovative remediation and restoration solutions.
"However, we know that in the longer term, these initiatives will help to catalyse wider growth and prosperity, enabling us to achieve our vision for a flourishing region by 2020."
Since 1997 £21m of public money, two thirds of which has been returned to the public purse in income, and £150m worth of private investment has been spent on regenerating former coalfield communities in Notts by creating employment, homes, leisure facilities and public space.
More than 154 hectares of brown field land has been reclaimed and nearly 650 houses commissioned, 427 of which had been completed by the end of the 2007 financial year.
But the rate of economic recovery from the loss of the mines has varied across the county.
According to the office for national statistics 13% of people living in Cotgrave and claiming job seekers allowance between March 2006 and April 2007 had been doing so for more than 12 months. In Ollerton this figure was zero.
Following the closure of Ollerton colliery in 1994, the 90-acre site was transformed into the Sherwood Energy Village under the leadership of former miner Stan Crowford, now managing director, and with funding from the National Coalfields Programme.
The eco-friendly sustainable commercial centre won Enterprising Britain 2005 and has attracted names such as Center Parcs.
Stan said: "The affect of the pit closure was the same in Ollerton as it was in any other community, but we decided to strike while the iron was hot.
"Everybody worked together and the village has brought different jobs in to the town.
"A lot of places have waited for somebody else to do it."
Stan said he believed Gedling and Cotgrave could still see similar levels of success. "Some things are particular to Ollerton but there are lots of things that could be applied to all."
Gedling colliery closed in 1991, followed by Cotgrave in 1992 but proposals are now in place for the overhaul of both sites. Cotgrave Town Council chairman Drew Wilkie said he believed the development was long overdue.
"Cotgrave is the last coal field in Notts to be earmarked for development.
"Work has been done since the closure of the pit hit the community but there is an awful lot of work still to be done." He said that a £10m support package for the area which followed the closure had been ill-timed. He said: "Cotgrave was given £10m a couple of years after the mine closed but that was too soon.
"It was needed later, around ten years after it closed, for children growing up and ten years on looking for where they wanted to go to work.
"Mining was a father to son job, boys would turn 16 and their father would ask what work there was at the pit."
Coun Wilkie said ex-miners had turned their hand to many different trades but that education was key.
"Miners are very versatile and resourceful. They've become bus drivers and done factory work - name it and they have had a go at it."
Emda is waiting to hear the outcome of a planning application for the Cotgrave site, part of which is now a country park.
A development brief for the Gedling colliery site, which includes a £30m access road, has been approved by Gedling Borough Council.
Reader comments
Greenman you are a cretin and you are the type of self centred fools that are dragging this country to its knees. Miners at one time were the backbone of the british economy, they aren't narrow minded they were working class folk trying to etch out a living for their families. If as you claim you are a miners son you will appreciate the closeness of those communities so to comment that the miners welfares should be shut too is a moronic statement. I'm guessing someone has some daddy issues!!!
antony, notts
The "D" in UDM stands for DIP$HIT
Bob,, Calvo
Cant we just be grateful the mines and the narrow minded miners have now gone ? All we need now is to close all the "Miners Welfares" down, dont these EX miners get it.....there are no mines, therefore no miners, therefore no miners welfares, it`s time to move on
greenman, mansfield
Brian D, USA do 'YOU' know what 'D' stands for in the U.D.M. ?. I don't think Scargill did .
a 'DEMOCRATIC' Notts miner ,, nottinghamshire
It`s good to see these former colliery sites being turned into Nature reserves, Country walks etc. Thank goodness all those dirty, filthy pits have gone, with their narrow minded mining communities, and miners with breathing related illnesses. For me, Maggie got it exactly right closing these loss making, heavily subsidised mines, and now creating something of beauty out of them ! Except Rufford Pit in Rainworth which is getting an equaly filthy disgusting Incinerator to burn everyone`s crap ! ps.Son of a miner !
Greenman, Mansfield
Thatcher didn't stuff us back in the day, The breakaway union stuffed us back in the day. If the Nottinghamshire miners had joined the strike most of the Pits would still be open and producing.
Brian D, USA
"Given money too soon"? Can you imagine the wailing and nashing of teeth there would have been at the time if money hadnt been given?
Digger Deeper, Earth
Reopen and bury maggie thatcher down there once and for all, she stuffed us back in the day
pitman, forest town
HIGH HOPES FOR NOTTS PIT SITES REGENERATION
8 readers have commented on this story. Click here to read their views.
09:00 - 30 June 2008
Forty years ago miners and their families were packing up their lives in north-east England and Scotland and moving to National Coal Board housing estates in Cotgrave, Calverton, Ollerton, Forest Town and Clipstone.
But just two generations later the thriving coal industry they moved to work in, after losing their jobs due to pit closures, had all but disappeared.
Today just three Notts pits remain: Thoresby, which has a secure future until 2018, moth-balled Harworth, which could reopen after a £5m coal seam investigation and Welbeck, set for closure next year.
More than 20 pits have closed in the county since the end of the 1984 miners strike.
English Partnership's National Coalfield Programme, working with the East Midlands Development Agency, aims to revitalise former coalfield sites across Notts through public and private sector investment.
Funding from the programme has created 600 jobs at Sherwood Energy Village, Ollerton, 1,850 jobs at Manton Colliery and Manton Woods sites and 400 at Shireoaks, near Worksop.
Gedling and Cotgrave collieries are set for re-development.
Emda's executive director of regeneration Diana Gilhespysaid: "Regenerating our former coalfields has been, and will continue to be a very challenging task because of the need to find innovative remediation and restoration solutions.
"However, we know that in the longer term, these initiatives will help to catalyse wider growth and prosperity, enabling us to achieve our vision for a flourishing region by 2020."
Since 1997 £21m of public money, two thirds of which has been returned to the public purse in income, and £150m worth of private investment has been spent on regenerating former coalfield communities in Notts by creating employment, homes, leisure facilities and public space.
More than 154 hectares of brown field land has been reclaimed and nearly 650 houses commissioned, 427 of which had been completed by the end of the 2007 financial year.
But the rate of economic recovery from the loss of the mines has varied across the county.
According to the office for national statistics 13% of people living in Cotgrave and claiming job seekers allowance between March 2006 and April 2007 had been doing so for more than 12 months. In Ollerton this figure was zero.
Following the closure of Ollerton colliery in 1994, the 90-acre site was transformed into the Sherwood Energy Village under the leadership of former miner Stan Crowford, now managing director, and with funding from the National Coalfields Programme.
The eco-friendly sustainable commercial centre won Enterprising Britain 2005 and has attracted names such as Center Parcs.
Stan said: "The affect of the pit closure was the same in Ollerton as it was in any other community, but we decided to strike while the iron was hot.
"Everybody worked together and the village has brought different jobs in to the town.
"A lot of places have waited for somebody else to do it."
Stan said he believed Gedling and Cotgrave could still see similar levels of success. "Some things are particular to Ollerton but there are lots of things that could be applied to all."
Gedling colliery closed in 1991, followed by Cotgrave in 1992 but proposals are now in place for the overhaul of both sites. Cotgrave Town Council chairman Drew Wilkie said he believed the development was long overdue.
"Cotgrave is the last coal field in Notts to be earmarked for development.
"Work has been done since the closure of the pit hit the community but there is an awful lot of work still to be done." He said that a £10m support package for the area which followed the closure had been ill-timed. He said: "Cotgrave was given £10m a couple of years after the mine closed but that was too soon.
"It was needed later, around ten years after it closed, for children growing up and ten years on looking for where they wanted to go to work.
"Mining was a father to son job, boys would turn 16 and their father would ask what work there was at the pit."
Coun Wilkie said ex-miners had turned their hand to many different trades but that education was key.
"Miners are very versatile and resourceful. They've become bus drivers and done factory work - name it and they have had a go at it."
Emda is waiting to hear the outcome of a planning application for the Cotgrave site, part of which is now a country park.
A development brief for the Gedling colliery site, which includes a £30m access road, has been approved by Gedling Borough Council.
Reader comments
Greenman you are a cretin and you are the type of self centred fools that are dragging this country to its knees. Miners at one time were the backbone of the british economy, they aren't narrow minded they were working class folk trying to etch out a living for their families. If as you claim you are a miners son you will appreciate the closeness of those communities so to comment that the miners welfares should be shut too is a moronic statement. I'm guessing someone has some daddy issues!!!
antony, notts
The "D" in UDM stands for DIP$HIT
Bob,, Calvo
Cant we just be grateful the mines and the narrow minded miners have now gone ? All we need now is to close all the "Miners Welfares" down, dont these EX miners get it.....there are no mines, therefore no miners, therefore no miners welfares, it`s time to move on
greenman, mansfield
Brian D, USA do 'YOU' know what 'D' stands for in the U.D.M. ?. I don't think Scargill did .
a 'DEMOCRATIC' Notts miner ,, nottinghamshire
It`s good to see these former colliery sites being turned into Nature reserves, Country walks etc. Thank goodness all those dirty, filthy pits have gone, with their narrow minded mining communities, and miners with breathing related illnesses. For me, Maggie got it exactly right closing these loss making, heavily subsidised mines, and now creating something of beauty out of them ! Except Rufford Pit in Rainworth which is getting an equaly filthy disgusting Incinerator to burn everyone`s crap ! ps.Son of a miner !
Greenman, Mansfield
Thatcher didn't stuff us back in the day, The breakaway union stuffed us back in the day. If the Nottinghamshire miners had joined the strike most of the Pits would still be open and producing.
Brian D, USA
"Given money too soon"? Can you imagine the wailing and nashing of teeth there would have been at the time if money hadnt been given?
Digger Deeper, Earth
Reopen and bury maggie thatcher down there once and for all, she stuffed us back in the day
pitman, forest town