About Us

We are a group of inidividuals, of no particular political persuasion, religeon, age, sex, colour or anything else who believe that as people we don’t always communicate with each other that well. We might disagree or agree with each other for many reasons but we share this one thing in common at least: we all live, have lived or might live around the Pontburn Valley and recognise its unique heritage and natural beauty.

This website, www.pontvalley.net, is our gift to see if we can’t help our many organizations, clubs, groups, individuals, interests and activities in all of our villages to start working together, for whatever reason we choose, using the pages of our website as a shared space to learn better how to do this and promote our particular causes, whatever these may be.

Some of us feel passionately that it would be wrong to resume opencasting so close to our villages, in an area so clearly visible and close to the woods of Pont Burn Valley. This area is only just beginning to recover from centuries of iron and coal working and is becoming, once again, an area of quite outstanding natural beauty with a rich flora and fauna as well as now, a unique industrial heritage which we value highly.

The Pont Burn Valley has elements of local history and industrial archaeology of national and probably international significance. These have yet to be fully researched and explored. Further, despite the transient nature of the opencasting which threatens again to undo fifty years and more of hard work and natural recovery, we believe that we would lose the very real and sustainable benefits of tourism for ever if opencasting is resumed now, even for a short period. For these reasons and many others we oppose opencasting.

Those people that use our site may or may not agree with us. This is of course their choice and this website, even though managed and maintained by those of us that believe that more opencasting now would be a disaster, seeks to be objective and unbiassed, presenting clear, reasoned arguments against opencasting on our website pages.We hold regular meetings and communicate openly and honestly about our views, making no apology about our campaign of objection to opencasting. Whether you agree or not, you are free to make use of our website and forum.

The Pont Valley Network supports the campaign against opencasting and this should be clear. But please be equally clear that this website is about more than one campaign, important though this may be. Our website - yours and mine - is here for anyone in the Pontburn Valley, for our Community Partnerships, Associations, Churches, Clubs, Hobbies, Interests, Activities - in fact for any people, young or old, as individuals or members of any of these, that care enough about the place we all share to want to be involved. We invite you to join us.

We're Having a Party!

We're having a party! For a change not a working one, on a Saturday Night after our AGM and to cellebrate a year of hard graft.

At the Dipton Community Centre from 7.00 p.m, on 13 September, after we get the words out of the way. If you want to join us for those, come early at 6.30 p.m. Likewise, if you want to come out walking with us, join us the following day after breakfast. We'll take a leasurely stroll around Billingside and get back to Dipton for lunch.

Costs nowt, we'll have a few turns and a couple of bottles of wine and home-made food, the usual Pont Valley Network hospitality, exhibitions, displays and interesting people. A good crowd.

Should be a good weekend so put it in your diary. Get past the words and come and join us to see what we're about. And look in on the website or watch out for posters to get up to date on detail.

Created on 08/05/2007 12:03 PM by rmr
Updated on 01/02/2009 08:36 PM by dshields