BRITAIN'S biggest coal company has shelved proposals to revive a controversial opencast scheme rejected by the Government 16 years ago.

UK Coal has withdrawn its application for 318 acres at Marley Hill, between Burnopfield and Gateshead, to be considered as a potential site in a blueprint for future mineral working being drawn up by Durham County Council.

Although no formal planning application was produced, the company believed the site could yield more than one million tonnes of coal during two-and-a-half years of extraction.

It would have been followed by 18 months of restoration, including the creation of new lines and sidings for the nearby Tanfield Railway and a volunteer-run steam preservation line, between Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, and Sunniside.

In 1990, the then Environment Secretary Chris Patten rejected British Coal's plan to work 615 acres over eight and a half years to win 2.8 million tonnes of coal, saying the need for the coal did not outweigh the scheme's impact on the environment.

His ruling followed a two-month public inquiry, at which more than 15 groups joined the county council and Gateshead Borough Council in opposing the scheme.

The latest, smaller, proposal was put forward by UK Coal as one of five sites in County Durham to be included in the county council's Minerals and Waste Development Framework, which will replace existing Minerals and Waste Local Plans and will fit into the North-East Regional Spatial Strategy produced by the un-elected regional assembly.

A spokesman for the company said it had withdrawn the site, most of which lies in Gateshead, for "economical reasons''.

"That may change but it is not in our short to medium term planning. There was a substantial amount of remediation work required on the site.

"At this stage of the county council's review, it is not a site we want to be considered. It is well on the back burner."

A county council spokesman said it would be meeting UK Coal shortly to discuss other identified sites - two in Derwentside - Bradley and Hurbruck, near Consett - plus White Lea, near Crook, and Randolph, near Bishop Auckland.

Gateshead council recently rejected plans by Hall Construction to work a site at Byermoor Farm, near the Gibeside Estate, but UK Coal recently won planning permission from Durham County Council to work the Stony Heaps site near Leadgate.