Mining land to become nature 'bank'

Land at Potland Burn, pictured here in 2015, will be transformed into a nature site

A former mining site is to be transformed into a nature hub, after housing plans backed by a multimillion-pound council loan fell through.

Land at Potland Burn, near Ashington, Northumberland, has been earmarked as a new "habitat bank", which developers could invest in.

Northumberland County Council approved a £7.5m loan to its regeneration company, Advance Northumberland, in 2017 to purchase the former opencast mining site and develop it for housing.

Councillors were told last week the plans had never come to fruition and there was currently no prospect of that loan being repaid.

Conservative councillor Nick Oliver, the council's cabinet member for finance, told colleagues the loan had become a "burden" for Advance Northumberland.

A report to the committee said £5.9m of the original loan had since been drawn down, but "subsequent events including planning constraints and a better understanding of the site conditions" led to the housing plans being deemed unviable and the land becoming a "stranded asset" with "no income-generating possibilities".

A business case for the habitat bank predicts the loan could be fully repaid within five years as biodiversity net gain credits are sold to developers, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

It could see the site used for new woodland, grassland, and watercourses, with developers able to invest into the site by purchasing credits, enabling them to meet legal obligations that require building projects to leave a minimum 10% net gain in biodiversity.

Councillor Nick Oliver says the former mine can become a nature site due to the new business opportunity

Mr Oliver said: "This is a fantastic way to deal with a business opportunity and an issue with an existing asset.

"For people who live in that part of the county around Ashington, it creates an improving natural habitat in an area that might have otherwise been built on and an area that has already had its fair share of building over the years."

The report sets out ambitions for the Potland Burn site to become the "leading habitat bank in the north of England" and "generate significant revenue and retained earnings in the order of £20m to £50m over the next 30 years".