Welsh Government urged to call in plans to restore controversial opencast coal mine

Anthony Lewis, local democracy reporter

An MS is urging the Welsh Government to call in plans to restore an opencast coal mine.

Delyth Jewell, the Plaid Cymru member for South Wales East, has requested a call-in of the revised restoration plan for Ffos y Fran which has been submitted to Merthyr Tydfil council by the mining company.

The main reasons given for requesting the call in include that the application “downgrades the extent of restoration that was supposed to take place at the site of the recently closed Ffos-y-fran opencast mine”.
Ms Jewell says 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 37m cubic metres of colliery slag”.

She says that residents are worried particularly after the recent coal tip slip in Cwmtillery, Blaenau Gwent.

Contractually obligated

She goes on to say: “The mining company stated back in April 2023 that they would not be spending any more money than that which they had already paid into the escrow account despite them being contractually obligated to deliver the final restoration at whatever cost to them.”

She adds that the fear of many residents is that this planning proposal is driven by the fact that the company is refusing to put more money into the scheme and not by any environmental benefits of the new scheme, as is being claimed by the developers.

Ms Jewell says: “Residents have suffered 17 years of opencast coal mining on their doorstep and there is concern that this application ‘may give rise to substantial controversy beyond the immediate locality’ and that it ‘could have wide effects beyond their immediate locality’.”

She says the site has already been a major part of the Senedd’s climate change, environment, and infrastructure committee recent investigation into the restoration of opencast sites and the current scrutiny of the disused tips bill.

Relevant

She says this is particularly relevant because the new proposals will see three new tips left overshadowing the communities she represents with at least two likely to be “disused coal tips” and will be added to the proposed new authority’s monitoring regime, adding to the burden it carries.

The key elements of the revised scheme include:

A mound in the northern part of the site would be reduced in height, “re-profiled”, and grass-seeded
Sections of exposed rock on the western side of the mound would be kept as open scree
Two other mounds would remain largely as they appear today and the lower slopes grass seeded and planted with native tree species

Old reservoirs, dams, and leats that remain from previous phases of mining would be kept. Other water bodies such as settlement lagoons used in the earlier phases of Ffos y Fran would also be kept
The lake in the main void would be kept with shallow banks and margins around the shores of the lake.

The surrounding slopes of the lake would be “re-profiled” and planted with native trees to form a mixed woodland.

Demolition and removal of existing buildings associated with the mine

A proportion of the site would be returned to urban common as rough grazing land

Areas outside the urban common would be prepared for habitats to be created with grassland, woodland, open cliff, wetland, flushes and heath

Land adjacent to A4060 would be “re-profiled” to provide potential for future light industrial use and grass seeded for general amenity until opportunities for development come forward

Creation of a network of footpaths, public rights of way and a byway open to all traffic

Enforcement notice

An application to extend operations at the mine was turned down by the council in 2023 but then coal was still mined from the site for around a year longer than there was permission for despite an enforcement notice being issued by Merthyr Tydfil council.

Now plans for a new restoration scheme have been submitted but residents have recently voiced their disappointment with it saying they want the one previously agreed to be delivered.

It finally closed in November 2023 and in its time of operation it had seen the extraction of around 11m tons of coal between 2007 and 2023.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We are working with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council and other regulators as part of a technical working group to ensure the best possible outcome is achieved for local people.”

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd has been contacted for comment.