Veteran ecowarrior Pitch calls it a day after declaring victory over old king coal

The North East’s oldest environmental campaigner, 93-year-old Pitch Wilson, is stepping down feeling safe in the knowledge that the decades-long battle he helped lead against opencast mining in the region has been won.

The chair of the County Durham branch of CPRE, the Countryside Charity, has a remarkable record of public service stretching back more than 50 years, including as Mayor of Gateshead, but it is his successful opposition to opencast mining – particularly in his beloved Derwent Valley – of which he is most proud.

This month Pitch will retire from his final public role, as Durham chair of the charity formerly known as the Campaign to Protect Rural England, to devote more time to his wife of 67 years, Mary.

But he is hoping a new generation of environmentally-aware young people will replace him in the fight to protect the region’s key landscapes and countryside.

“I’m very hopeful for the future, when I see how concerned the younger generation is about the future of the planet,” he said.

“The climate crisis has really focused their attention on the importance of the environment and, hopefully, our duty to look after and protect it whenever and wherever we can.”

Pitch, of Rowlands Gill, has been part of the North East’s environmental landscape since the mid-1960s, when he first got involved in opposing inappropriate development in the Derwent Valley.

Since then he has appeared in close to 50 public inquiries to give evidence opposing landscape-destroying developments, the vast majority of them opencast mining.

In the Derwent Valley, he had a perfect record – 10 opencasts opposed,10 won after public inquiry – only to see the eleventh, the Banks Group’s application to opencast at the Bradley site near Dipton, in the Pont Valley, controversially approved by the Government in 2018.

The decision drew continual protests and the site had to be constantly manned by security guards and dogs and when the Banks Group applied to extend the site in 2020, Durham County Council took notice of more than 6,000 letters of objection and refused the application.

Meanwhile, Pitch had been part of the huge and successful campaigning effort to prevent Banks Group from developing a vast opencast site next to picturesque Druridge Bay on the Northumberland coast.

And with Banks Group also failing to win permission for an opencast mine at Dewley Hill, near Throckley, Newcastle, in the face of stiff public opposition in 2021, Pitch feels the ship has sailed on coal in the region.

He said: “I’ve felt that coal was finished for quite some time and the wrong decision was made to allow opencasting at the Bradley site – that’s just the way it goes with a public inquiry though and you have to accept it, all you can do is make your case and hope they end up making the right decision.

“I suppose 10 out of 11 wasn’t bad though as a win ratio for campaigners in the Derwent Valley.

“For me, the real test was when the Ukraine war broke out last year because some were loudly making the case for the return of fossil fuels but public opinion is against it and every year renewable energy is getting stronger and stronger and will eventually all but take over

“If there were no new mines approved in the North East at a time when energy costs were going through the roof, I think we can say it is finally consigned to history now.

”I think it would have happened eventually anyway but I’m glad that during the last few decades we’ve managed to stop so much potential environmental destruction and pollution.”

Pitch’s love for the environment has been lifelong.

A keen walker, he was involved with the Youth Hostel Association for more than 50 years and acted as countryside officer, he is also a long-time member of the Ramblers Association and Friends of the Earth.

Having asked CPRE, (formerly the Campaign to Protect Rural England), for support in the mid-1960s, he stayed in touch with the charity and in 1970, along with Ken Ashby, he co-founded the County Durham branch of CPRE, which covered the old borders of the county and included Gateshead and what is now South Tyneside.

He fought many other battles – apart from opencast – as a long-time member and secretary of the Derwent Valley Protection Society and he was able to exert influence as a councillor – as a  member of Blaydon Council from 1969-74 and then Gateshead Council for 22 years, becoming Mayor in the year 2,000.

In 2008, he was delighted to be made chair of the Great North Forest Steering Group  – “my mouth was watering when I heard I’d got that role,” he chuckled.

Trees have been another passion in his life.

He and wife, Mary, planted two-and-a-half acres of trees at the former rubbish tip on Thornley Lane on the road to Winlaton, 50 years ago. And as a younger man, walking at Winlaton Mill near the A694, he would surreptitiously drop seedlings in receptive ground when he was out for a walk.

Oak trees may grow from acorns but in Pitch’s case it was chestnut trees, Scots Pine, sycamores and maple trees he saw sprout and he has lived long enough to see them grow to their full stature and flourish.

“I remember once being stopped by a policeman who thought I was loitering suspiciously and wanted to know what I was doing,” Pitch smiles. “It took him a while before he really believed the answer, which was planting trees!

“Those trees look lovely though today and are a real asset to the area – which just shows there’s a thousand different ways to help the environment.”

Richard Cowen, chair of CPRE North East, said “Pitch is incredible for his age and CPRE has been lucky to have his contributions for more than 50 years now.

“He’s the sort of person who has always led by example and has had the countryside close to his heart in everything he has done.

“People like Pitch are inspirational and we are always on the lookout for anyone of any age who shares his love for the countryside and wants to get involved.”

Anyone wanting more information about CPRE branches in the North East can email: sec@cpredurham.org.uk or ring 07739 300 692.