‘We’ve suffered enough’: Durham locals fight new open-cast coal mine

The Banks Group mine is going ahead despite fears it will devastate the local environment

From the end of her garden June Davison can see and hear the heavy machinery stripping away the valley. Soon there will be explosions and dust to add to the 12 hour thrum of engines as the coal is stripped from below the earth.

After 40 years of local opposition that has helped keep this area of the Derwent valley in County Durham untouched, open-cast mining has begun between the villages of Dipton, Leadgate and Medomsley, once home to a deeply entrenched mining community around what was South Medomsley colliery.