Businessman in court for allegedly assaulting solicitor

The owner of Wales’ largest opencast mine has been summonsed to appear in court in relation to an allegation that he assaulted a solicitor.

Businessman David Lewis, 68, of Hillcrest, Sluvad, Pontypool, is alleged to have assaulted Robert Davies, 75, chairman of the Robert Davies Partnership LLP outside his office in Newport, causing actual bodily harm.

It was previously agreed that Mr Lewis would be issued with a conditional caution, but it is now alleged that the terms of the caution have not been complied with.

Mr Lewis is due to appear in Newport Magistrates Court on July 14.

‘Epic mismanagement’

One of Mr Lewis’ companies owns the Ffos-y-Fran mine at Merthyr Tydfil. Last year a report from the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee described the “epic mismanagement” of the saga surrounding the restoration of the mine, which the businessman’s company is obliged to pay for.

Company accounts show that more than £91m has been set aside for the restoration, although there is no sign of such work being completed any time soon.

The licence to extract coal from Ffos-y-Fran expired in September 2022 but local residents reported that the mine was still operating – illegally – many months after this before the site was closed in November 2023.

When it first opened, the company running the mine, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, pledged to fully restore the site after it finished operations.

Dividends

The committee heard evidence that since 2017, the company has paid out nearly £50m in dividends and royalties out of the business.

But despite the original restoration promises, the company now claims that it is unable to afford this.

The local community is now looking at a permanent scar across its countryside as it fights to see the land restored as much as possible.

Alyson and Chris Austin live near Ffos-y-Fran and are long-term campaigners on the issue. They said,: “The whole process has been awful and the communication from both the council and the mining company has been appalling throughout. They will only tell us anything when they’re absolutely forced to; the local community seems to be at the bottom of their list of priorities.

“We have huge concerns about what the future holds for Ffos-y-Fran. What we’ll be left with is a loose and steep-sided valley with a lake at the bottom; easily accessible by anyone, and a magnet for children.

“We feel like we’ve been hung out to dry by our local authority, the Welsh Government, and government agencies at all levels. The mining company should be keeping to its promise of full restoration and the council shouldn’t let them get away with leaving us with dangerous and derelict land.

“This restoration of derelict and dangerous land was the only benefit to us suffering 17 years of opencast coal mining on our doorsteps. It’s simply not fair that the community is now left in a worse position than we were in before this started.”

This committee called on the Welsh Government to use stronger enforcement measures when planning controls are breached, for example when mining continued at a site after the licence expiration.