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Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine quietly becomes a massive reservoir

Local residents kept in the dark

Council passive as company sabotages agreed restoration plan

Key to the current restoration plan (agreed in 2007) was the return of the huge overburden mounds into the void that were created when the void was excavated to reach the coal. Every day the void fills with water, though, makes returning these overburden mounds to the void more expensive and logistically difficult, as that water would need to be drained first. This is likely to be the intention—Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd is refusing to fulfil its legal obligation to fund the restoration plan, so it’s looking to cut corners. Avoiding shifting millions of tonnes of overburden back into the void is a large corner to cut. Removing the pumps, that have been draining water from the void for the past 15 years, and taking months to apply to the Council for a budget restoration deal means that Councillors would have little choice but to rubber-stamp approval. The Council have admitted this would affect the "viability" of the restoration plan.

Council makes no move to inform inhabitants of accumulating reservoir nearby, with no safety checks yet made

Coal Action Network’s drone footage on Monday 11th March raised the alarm bell about the rising water levels. With this footage, a local resident informed Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council of the rising water levels, only to be told that the Council was already aware of it, and that Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd had removed the pumps with no intention of reinstating them. Yet the Council made not move to inform any residents living close to the mine of the massive build up of water above their heads. The Council’s oversight of 15 months of illegal coal mining and now this intentional derailment of the current restoration plan is a further dereliction of its responsibility to the safety and wellbeing of town inhabitants. The Council has failed to hold Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to account for its many transgressions over the past 15 months of illegal coal mining, with baffling impotence. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd’s most recent action to remove pumps from the void is directly breaking the enforcement notice served to it by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, but we won’t hold our breath waiting for the Council to do anything about that…

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Published: 27. 03. 2024

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