A COMMUNITY group have welcomed the withdrawal of a 'zombie' opencast application near Kirkconnel.

Coal operator Hargreaves has withdrawn its application for a new opencast coal site at Rigg North, near Kirkconnel.

The Scottish Opencast Communities Alliance (SOCA) has welcomed the withdrawal and called on coal operators to withdraw the remaining eight applications for new sites in Scotland.

SOCA Chairman Malcolm Spaven said: “The Rigg North application was languishing in the planning system for more than four years. Other applications have been sitting in the system for as much as twelve years. They’re zombie applications, with no prospect of being developed, because the market for coal has collapsed. We welcome the withdrawal of Rigg North and Hargreaves’ admission that keeping it going caused blight to local communities. It’s now time for them to withdraw all their other applications that are causing blight to people across central Scotland.”

Mr Spaven added: “We can now finally dispel the myth that extracting more coal can provide jobs and fund restoration. We need all parties – local authorities, Scottish and UK Governments and the coal operators – to focus on finding the money to properly restore the many abandoned sites across the country.”

Local activist, Jerry Mulders also welcomed the news as a positive sign for communities with pending applications hanging over them. He said: "There are still groups of sites like the entire Chalmerston Complex, which has seen no progress at all. One of the sites on the complex, Benbain Remainder, was withdrawn in March, but no alternative plans to support the 'make safe, make good, make new' set out in the East Ayrshire Council 'Steps to Recovery' report in 2013 have been brought forward.

"The last time coaling took place at the Chalmerston Complex was in 2008 and it has been lying there derelict, seemingly abandoned, now for eight years. Whilst withdrawing planning applications gives some communities some certainty, what about those for which there are still no plans for whatsoever? How much longer will they lie there as a blight for those particular communities? Will it be more than a decade before communities see some visible progress at some of the seemingly ‘forgotten’ sites?"

There are still live applications for sites at Duncanziemere near Logan and Carsgailoch Hill as well as other in Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, Fife and Falkirk.