Job losses only bad part of mine’s failure

Re William Telford’s article on Saturday, you should, I feel, point out that the loss of 200 jobs at the Wolff Minerals’s mine at Hemerdon is the only sad issue involving the demise.

The mine has devastated a large area of land, ruining the aesthetic, wildlife and solitude of the area. (You only have to drive along Wotter road to witness the destruction). The foremost area of disruption is the noise and vibration. House prices in Sparkwell and the surrounding parishes have all been affected (some actually shake) and the broken promises by Wolf on sound abatement only heralded the collapse. The night of the announcement I took the dogs out at 10.45pm and the silence was awe inspiring. Birds could be heard and the deer were roaring.

As far as the shareholders are concerned: the

‘financials’ were never there and it was clearly a gamble, which pre-supposes, they were wealthy enough to lose it anyway and did so.

More importantly, we were all informed, including Mr Streeter MP, that there is a £14m fund, securely bonded and separate from the company, which is to be used to return the mine to it’s original state should just this happen. This I believe was a requirement of planning permission. Let us start tomorrow.

It is beholden on all of us to ensure the mine and the environment is re-instated to again be part of glorious Devon.

Gavin Dollard

Cornwood