RESEARCHERS have urged opencast mining companies to do more to reassure people when seeking permission for sites.

A study by Newcastle University showed that residents were likely to oppose proposals for opencast mines, even if people living near existing sites found that their initial worries were not realised.

Researchers concluded that companies should be more open about their operations in the North-East.

Their interviews suggested that most residents grew used to mining and accepted that many of their worries were not borne out by events.

Called It Wasn't The Plague we Expected, the report is published in the Social Science and Medicine journal.

The researchers conducted interviews with people living in Evenwood and Ramshaw, in County Durham, Herrington, in Wearside, and Amble, in Northumberland, all opencast areas.

Residents said that, having been initially concerned about the risk of air pollution, many were reassured by subsequent events.

A separate study of children's health in the same areas, published in 1999, showed no links between dust levels from the mines and asthma.

However, the study did find that children living near opencast mines were more likely to visit their family doctor with breathing problems.

In the latest study, people living near mines told the university researchers that they felt they had been "fobbed off" by opencast companies during the planning stages, despite having been given evidence to suggest that there were no links with childhood asthma.

Researchers concluded that it was in companies' interests to act early to allay residents' fears.

Gestures such as installing monitors to measure dust and providing play equipment for local schools were appreciated by residents, the researchers said.