Midlands Colliery to be brought back to life by Merrimans

Land and remediation specialist Merriman Ltd has gained outline planning permission for 124 new homes on a 3.15ha site at the former Annesley Colliery in the East Midlands.

The colliery yard site, disused for more than a decade, is again set to deliver jobs, and new homes to help meet housing needs in Nottinghamshire. The Midlands-based firm will now begin levelling the colliery yard to make it suitable for redevelopment.

Merriman remediated the northern half of the colliery through 2008 to spring 2010, with this land now being developed by Persimmon Homes. As a feature of this development, Merriman organised the dismantling and careful restoration of the colliery wheels, which it relocated to the forefront of the site to create an eye-catching reminder of the site’s important history.

The company has also remediated the colliery’s pit tips, situated to the east of the colliery yard, converting the lagoons into lakes for angling and wildlife, and building Newstead Earth Centre to an eco design using recycled tyres packed with earth to store heat.

With outline planning permission in place, the southern section of the colliery, off Hucknall Road, will be ready for construction in the second half of 2012.

Peter Sutton, Director of Sutton Land Developments Ltd and consultant for Merriman who has managed the project through planning, said: “We’re delighted to have received outline planning permission for residential development from Ashfield District Council.

“The site had an existing consent for employment use, but with no prospects of being developed in this way in the current economic climate, we worked hard to achieve a change of use for the site. As a result, the site will serve the former mining community once again, by providing jobs and homes.”

Annesley Colliery closed in December 2000 after 130 years. Since then, Merriman has played an important part in helping the community to create Newstead and Annesley Country Park and Visitors’ Centre, a project by Newstead Enterprise which attracted Big Lottery Funding and was featured in an episode of the BBC’s Village SOS presented by Sarah Beeny.

Further details on Merriman’s work in Annesley can be viewed at merrimans.com.