OPENCAST: We need to protect area

We have had the eyesore of opencast for the last 50 years and now fossil fuels are not acceptable, so it seems a little odd to be spoiling yet another area.

I recently saw the leader of the Green Party interviewed at the Widdrington site where there was a large amount of open water, and while everyone’s attention was on the interview, I noticed an animal diving, surfacing, and re-diving, and I then noticed it was an otter fishing for its supper. The camera teams were entirely unaware.

We have had to make a lot of effort to get these lovely mammals back on our waterways since the 1960s, the first exciting view about 1975.

Opencast will destroy that fishing ground.

This surely is more important than further destruction of the county and we should all join in with the objectors and say “no more opencast” where we are trying to get the visitors our young unemployed need for future work.

Anne Wrangham,

Alnwick