ow brews over Panic's coal site
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by Eugene Silke • A 112m expansion at Panic Link creating up to 100 drivers' jobs is being blocked by British Coal, according to the parcel carrier.
Panic Link directors are furious that BC has refused to sell a 78acre site lying idle adjacent to the carrier's Leicestershire base at Lount "We cannot go ahead with the planned expansion," says director Ernie Lindsay. A total of 400 jobs would be created as part of plans for a Eurohub served by East Midlands Airport.
Lindsay claims BC pulled out of talks because Panic Link had previously objected to an opencast planning application that would have destroyed ancient woodland. The head of the company's legal department, Robert Benoist, says that he was told this in a phone conversation with a BC employee. "The coal board harbours a grudge against Panic Link plc," says Lindsay.
"Nonsense," says a BC spokesman, adding that it routinely works on projects with local people who have fought other opencast schemes.
Mining on the site finished in 1987 and it was backfilled and covered with top soil the following year. The standard five-year restoration period before the site can be released for agricultural use ends this summer.
BC says it decided to retain the land and sell it by open tender "at a future date" because there are several interested parties. But Panic Link challenges this: Lindsay insists that Panic Link offered more than the site's current market value.