Welsh Government should decide on future of mismanaged opencast side, says Plaid MS

Martin Shipton

The Welsh Government rather than Merthyr council should decide whether to approve a controversial planning application from a company that has failed to reclaim land used for Wales’ largest opencast coal mine, according to a Plaid Cymru MS.

Last year the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee published a report that described the “epic mismanagement” of the Ffos-y-Fran mine at Merthyr Tydfil, saying nothing similar must be allowed to happen in any community in Wales.

The licence to extract coal from the site 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.

But little progress has been made and the firm recently submitted a planning application for further work at the site.

Network of companies

Nation.Cymru reported in March 2025 how a network of companies now controlled by businessman David Lewis was involved in the ownership of the mine, and how the sum of £92m had been earmarked in company accounts for restoration of the site. Since our article a further year’s accounts have been filed at Companies House and the amount set aside has risen to £92.2m.

We also reported how Mr Lewis had recently been cautioned by Gwent Police for assault causing actual bodily harm on solicitor Robert Davies, who is in his 70s. Mr Lewis also has a conviction for defrauding a bank of more than £88,000 to fund his gambling addiction.

In addition, Nation.Cymru has seen a memorandum written in 2007 to the then directors of Miller Argent Ltd – the previous name of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd – that details what became a legal agreement between Miller Argent and the council, appearing to limit the company’s exposure to £15m.

Derelict

Delyth Jewell, a Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales East who has been supporting local residents, said: “The planning system we have does not always work for communities. A prime example of this is what’s happening at Ffos-y-fran in Merthyr. Ffos-y-fran was the site of opencast coal mining until last year, but since the coal mining stopped, the local community has been left looking at a dirty derelict site, where a void that’s been left filled with what’s likely contaminated water still is there.

“I have written to the planning authorities asking them to call in the recent planning application by the firm because it downgrades the extent of restoration that was supposed to take place at Ffos-y-fran.

“The new application will condemn residents to live by a site with one million cubic metres and in shadow of three huge coal tips with 37 million cubic metres of colliery slag. Residents are worried particularly after the recent coal tip slip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent.

“The planning system does not seem to support the people who are stuck living near the site looking at it every day.”

Local residents Alyson and Chris Austin said: “Our many thanks to Delyth Jewell for championing our issues here in Merthyr Tydfil with the final Ffos-y-fran land reclamation.

“This appalling attempt by the mining company to avoid paying a penny more for the final restoration of Ffos-y-fran, as was promised and they are contracted to deliver, deserves the scrutiny and attention only available through a public inquiry.

“The Welsh Government needs to step in and take this planning application from the Merthyr Tydfil local authority who have failed, and are still failing to control the excesses of this mining company.

“They have had the coal; now it’s time to fill in the hole!

“After 17 years suffering opencast coalmining on our doorstep, we deserve no less than what was promised us at the beginning of this scheme.”

‘Low level restoration’

Daniel Therkelsen, campaigns manager of the Coal Action Network group, said: “It’s simple, the coal operator’s publicly available audited accounts show that as of the end of 2023, it had set aside £91.2m to fund the restoration agreed with the Council in 2015. So why has the council been echoing the company since 2023, saying that plan is ‘undeliverable’?

“It’s on this false basis that the council is now considering what the company representatives themselves call a ‘low level’ restoration, which would see the 58,000 residents of Merthyr Tydfil cheated out of nearly £91.2m in funding to put back their local landscape devastated by many years of opencast coal mining.

“The Welsh Government claims to be working with the council, but neither party seems to be going after the money to restore nature back to the land – we need transparency now.”

A spokesperson for Merthyr council told us in March 2025: “The developer is undertaking restoration that accords with the approved Restoration Strategy from 2007.

“The council had no right to revisit the figure of £15m because it was secured as part of the planning permission by Welsh Government Ministers at the time, and unless a new planning application was submitted there was no opportunity to revisit this. The £15m was to be used towards restoration but was not set up to cover the full cost. It is, and always has been, the responsibility of the mine owner to ensure they have sufficient funds to cover the full restoration works.

“Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd are currently onsite and up to 40% of the land has already been restored under the original planning application. MSW has recently submitted a planning application incorporating a revised restoration strategy. All relevant issues will be considered as part of the planning application process, and the application will be presented to the planning committee for determination in due course.”

Mr Lewis did not respond to our questions.