“The Idle Valley is one of England’s most important wildlife reserves, home to dozens of rare species, and a popular access to nature for people from near and far. But it’s under threat. The landscape was restored and rewilded years ago using ash dumped from nearby power stations. Now they want to dig it all up again. In a county famed for restoring the scars of its industrial past, it seems perverse to take a step backwards. We can’t afford to keep on destroying nature. In this part of rural north Nottinghamshire, it’s time to say Enough is Enough.”
So says the campaigning group “No Way PFA” who are campaigning to stop the proposed scheme to strip mine an area adjacent to the Idle Valley Nature Reserve. We have reported on the the would be venture as proposed by Hive Aggregates previously on this website, most recently the presentation by that company to Lound Parish Council on 25th October 2022.
A member of the campaigning group, local resident Steve Shelley, has produced a video that describes the impact that the extraction of Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) over the project timescale of 25 years will have on the Idle Valley Wetlands, our local villages and homes. That video, “Enough is Enough” makes for interesting and downright concerning viewing and we recommend that you make the time to view it.
The image on the website above, taken from the video, illustrates how such an activity of strip mining to expose PFA at the site, might impact on a cluster of local villages and Retford Town itself. You might therefore think it prudent to keep abreast of what Hive Aggregates have in mind for our neighbourhood and the video is a good place to start!