Plans to opencast land that includes a county wildlife site have been granted planning permission despite objections from organisations including English Nature and the Durham Wildlife Trust.

Durham County Council's planning committee has approved by eight votes to two UK Coal's application to work 121 acres at Stony Heap, near Leadgate, to extract 257,000 tonnes of coal for power stations over two years.

Currently there is no opencasting in County Durham, the last site working having finished in May, and when work starts in 2006 it will provide jobs for 40 people.

The firm is promising extensive restoration of the site, a 15-year management plan and a scheme to tackle minewater pollution from the site, which still has old colliery buildings that would be cleared.

Derwentside Council objected because of the impact on views from the nearby village of Iveston, the impact on the county wildlife site and the adverse effect the working would have on efforts to get inward investment.

English Nature said the scheme would lead to the loss of important ancient grassland and Durham Wildlife Trust raised concerns about said the impact on the wildlife site.

The Durham Bat Group said the site was home to bats and it should be left as it is.

Another objector, Gerry White, an ecologist from Iveston, said the county wildlife site was almost "a site of scientific interest'' as it was home to creatures including bats, owls, newts and neutral acidic grassland.

Watts Stelling, member for Leadgate and Medomsley, said: "I think this is one of the most beautiful parts of County Durham. We are custodians of this landscape and we shouldn't forget that.''

But the committee was told that planning officers believed that benefits from the scheme - including the creation of a new nature conservation area - would outweigh any adverse impact and would be shortlived.

Afterwards Mr White and Councillor Stelling said they were disappointed at the decision.

Mr White said he was concerned that the application could the "thin end of the wedge'' as other potential opencasting sites were listed in the regional assembly's miners plan.

UK Coal's project manager Richard Cory said: "UK Coal are obviously very pleased. We think the officers have done a fantastic job making sense of a very complex application.''