BACK TO TOP

Coal in industry

Although the UK entirely removed coal from its electricity generation with the closure for Ratcliffe Power Station in October 2024, it continues to rely on coal in a number of industries. The UK must rapidly decarbonise these carbon-intensive industries to meet its climate commitments. Click on the tabs below to find out about each industrial application of coal.

Published 29. 04. 2025

The natural world of Glan Lash

This nature was photographed around 50 metres from the edge of the Glan Lash opencast coal mine in Ammanford, South Wales. It shows the thriving ecosystems surrounding the Glan Lash opencast coal mine which has remained dormant since 2019. All the nature photographed would be killed and destroyed if Bryn Bach Coal Ltd get their application to extend the coal mine, approved. We're resisting this extension, you can too.

But this space is dedicated to celebrating the lush and undisturbed ecosystem currently here. Long may it remain so.

Published 18. 04. 2025

Committee takes forward CAN's key recommendations

Background

In February, CAN gave oral testimony to the Climate Change, Energy, and Infrastructure Committee (CCEIC) on the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill. Alongside FOE Cymru, we gave a candid account of the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls of the Bill. Watch our session in full.

CAN sways key Committee

The CCEIC is the first committee scrutinising The Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill passing through the Senedd, giving it significant scope to shape the Bill at an early stage. CAN successfully persuaded the CCEIC during our oral testimony to make key recommendations to the Welsh Government to improve the Bill in its Stage 1 report:

Recommendation 4

The Welsh Government should provide further assurance that:

  • existing planning legislation, the Welsh Government’s coal policy and Planning Policy Wales are sufficiently robust to ensure that proposals to remediate a disused tip involving coal extraction will not be permissible unless they are for the purpose of ensuring public safety, and
  • the Welsh Government’s coal policy will prevent any coal extracted during remediation work from being sold for the purpose of burning

- Stage 1 report.

Published: 15. 04. 2025

Westminster: our evidence on Wales' coal legacy

Westminster’s Welsh Affairs Committee

Coal Action Network was invited to attend Westminster where we gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee in their inquiry about the environmental and economic legacy of Wales’ industrial past, alongside Friends of the Earth Cymru.

This inquiry was opened in December 2024 to examine the environmental legacy and economic impact of Wales’ historical heavy industries. You can find our written evidence here.

Summary of our submission

In our submission, we focused on the consequences today of old coal mines. Whilst we recognise the wealth it generated, much of that was kept by the Directors of mining companies whilst abandoning their restoration responsibilities to host communities. Our 2022 report ‘Coal mine restoration in South Wales’ documents this pattern in Wales’ recent past. We also highlighted the threat of new coal mining under the guise of remediation, as proposed in Bedwas, South Wales.

Our oral evidence

  1. We explained that the cycle of mining companies letting down their host communities is not just a legacy issue, but is also a live issue. We commented on how perverse it would be to rely on profit-driven mining companies to fix the problems caused by those same profit-driven mining companies.
  2. We highlighted that not all coal tips should be flattened – with unique and rare ecologies growing up around some of the older coal tips. Many coal tips are also stable and safe now.
  3. We called for the UK Government’s coal ban to include ‘remining’ coal tips – as this shares many of the same characteristics as conventional coal mining.
  4. We also recommended that the UK Government deliver more dedicated funding on an ongoing basis to the Welsh Government to monitor and remediate historic coal mining sites and tips.
Published 07.04.2025

Lethal landscape: cuts to Ffos-y-fran mine restoration puts community at risk

A new plan to cut every corner

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd operates the recently closed sprawling Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine, next to the town of Merthyr Tydfil - home to around 58,000 people. In 2015, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd agreed a restoration plan with Merthyr Tydfil Council, which - after coal mining ended - would see the landscape put back to before coal mining began and with extensive habitat improvement to support nature to return to the area. But as soon as Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd saw there was no more profit to be made, it claimed that it had failed to set aside enough of its profits to fund the restoration plan it agreed to deliver back in 2015. Rather than taking Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to court over what would be a breach of contract and trust, Merthyr Tydfil Council invited the company to gut that restoration agreement by around £85 million in works, and with no punitive action against the company. This is despite all public records indicating Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd actually can afford the original restoration plan.

We've been here before...

Within the last decade, Celtic Energy Ltd - another mining company, evaded well over £100 million in restoration costs and made a high quality restoration impossible at 4 opencast coal mines across South Wales. Communities living close to these sub-standard restorations still pay the price for Celtic Energy Ltd's profiteering. In fact, the Welsh landscape is littered with over 2,500 coal tips - abandoned by coal mining operations and now forming a huge burden estimated to cost £600 million to deal with.

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd's attempt to evade the cost of the restoration it agreed to at Ffos-y-fran is therefore just the most recent instance of an industry that continues to cost some of the poorest communities in South Wales more than it ever gave them. But all is not lost for the 58,000 residents of nearby Merthyr Tydfil. We're standing alongside vocal campaigners in the area against this attempt by Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to short-change the town of Merthyr Tydfil by £91.2 million in restoration funds. You can help us by taking 2 min to object to this application on the local council's website.

We're back in the Senedd giving oral evidence

Oral evidence the for Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill

We were invited for the second time to give oral evidence to the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee of the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) on 05th February 2025. We shared the panel with Haf, Director of FOE Cymru, to provide our opinion on the weaknesses, strengths, and improvements that need to happen for the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill to deliver real benefits for Welsh people living in the shadow of coal tips.

The big risk

We emphasised that the The Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill, in its current form, carries the very real risk that it could encourage 'remining' so-called waste coal from coal tips under the guise of making those coal tips safe. There is a live proposal to do exactly this for two coal tips in Bedwas, Caerphilly. Read more about coal tip re-mining and safety.

Our message to the Senedd Committee: include a provision in this new Bill prohibiting coal extraction for commercial gain from disused coal tips.

Watch now

Watch our session with the Committee to find out how the pros and cons of the new Bill, not least encouraging 'remining' coal tips which contain up to 643 million tonnes of coal, emitting up to 1.7 BILLION tonnes of CO2.

Last time we gave oral evidence in the Senedd...

In April 2024, we were invited to give oral evidence on Welsh coal mine restoration, with a focus on Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine. Check out this video of our debut session with the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee.

Mining company sells out local communities to keep record profits

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd illegally mined coal at Ffos-y-fran for over a year, profiting from record coal prices. Now, it wants to keep all the profits by trying to downgrade the restoration plan, breaking its promise to the 60,000 residents of Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.

Take action by 14/03/25!

Your letter means much more if it's put in your own words why you want Merthyr Tydfil Council to deliver on its promise to return nature to the Ffos-y-fran opencast site, and reject the application to downgrade this huge restoration project. Here's some points you might choose to include, or go straight to the objection form:

  1. Residents deserve not to worry about a million cubic metres of mine water above them, with just a road between that and them.
  2. Residents deserve not to sorry about 37 million cubic metres of colliery spoil across the 3 coal tips becoming unstable in living memory of the 1966 Aberfan disaster, and recent 2024 coal tip slip in Cwmtillery.
  3. Residents deserve to receive the quality of restoration promised to them as a condition of the opencast coal mine.
  4. Residents deserve for the Council to investigate the mining company's unproven claim it can't fund the quality of restoration it's contractually obligated to deliver.
  5. Commoners deserve to have their rights and grazing land restored to them and continue their traditional way of life.
  6. The State of Nature Wales 2023 report outlined a nature emergency in Wales - we cannot afford to cut massively downgrade this restoration.

This will take you to the Merthyr Tydfil Council's short objection form.

Published: 28/02/2025

We investigate mining company's 'missing' millions

Background

Mining company: Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd (MSW) is the current operator of the sprawling opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran, in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.

Claim: MSW claims "It was established that there are insufficient funds available to achieve the 2015 restoration strategy and therefore an alternative scheme is required." (EIA Scoping Report, July 2024). It is on this basis that a new application will be considered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council.

MSW's 'solution': To downgrade the restoration scheme promised to surrounding communities to one that amounts to doing as little as possible. Even returning the tens of millions of cubic metres of coal tips to fill in the gaping void the company created and allowed to flood is considered "not feasible or economic" (EIA Scoping Report, July 2024)

Why MSW is offering to do any works: Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council holds £15 million in an Escrow account that it forced MSW to pay into (by court order). This was never intended to fund the original restoration agreement costed at £75-120 million, but that is what's happening now as MSW is claiming the company doesn't have the finances to pay for the restoration it previously agreed to fund. MSW wants this £15 million so is proposing a massively downgraded restoration plan and presenting this as the only option so the Council will pay this out to them. The Council is afraid the company will walk away if it is compelled to honour its contractual agreement to fund the restoration itself. If that happens, the Council would have to pay a new company to come in to restore the site, which'd cost more.

Our recommendation: Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council has refused to pursue MSW to deliver on the contractually agreed level of restoration, and is poised to consider a downgraded plan by MSW which would affect surrounding communities living in Merthyr Tydfil for generations. Haven't they put up with enough after 16 years of coal mining, dust, and noise pollution? The Welsh Government urgently needs to launch an inquiry MSW finances and the Council's actions, issuing a 'holding directive' to prevent the Council approving the downgraded plan in the meantime.

No evidence of limited finances

To our knowledge, there has been no evidence submitted by MSW that it cannot fund the full restoration it is contracted to undertake. On the contrary, MSW's most recent, publicly available, financial statement on Companies House says "during the year the directors again reassessed the restoration provision based on current operating costs in particular diesel prices which have decreased significantly and increased plant hire costs, which as a result increased the restoration provision by £0.2m to £91.2m",  by 31 Dec 2023, admitting record profits the year before, with its ultimate parent company, Gwent Holdings Ltd, reporting "The average coal price achieved increased by 94% to £151.66 per tonne" in its 2022 filing. This funding for restoration was based on Ffos-y-fran closing at the end of its planning permission in September 2022 - but it continued illegally mining coal for over a year after that, and even outside its licenced area, selling an extra 640,000 tonnes of coal - driving profits even further.

It's been claiming tax discounts to HMRC each year by phasing expected restoration costs that it now refuses to pay. This report goes on to say "The total costs of reinstatement of soil excavation and of surface restoration are recognised as a provision at site commissioning when the obligation arises. The amount provided represents the present value of the expected costs.".

This very much sounds like the company able and prepared to pay the restoration costs, and had already claimed tax discounts for it. So why is the company being allowed to duck tens of millions in what it owes?

Companies involved

As is typical of the mining industry, operations and financing is done through a complicated constellation of interconnected companies owned by family members (depictions of which are illustrative only and not based on any likeness). This kind of practice could help evade liabilities - though we're not suggesting that was the intention here. The following information is accurate to the best of our knowledge, please refer to Companies House for confirmation/further details:

  • Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd
    • Company number 04261274
    • David Stanley Lewis - Director and shareholder
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Directors
    • Named operator of Ffos-y-fran
  • MERTHYR (NOMINEE NO.1) LIMITED
    • Company number 04261269
    • David Stanley Lewis - Director as of August 2024
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Directors
    • Dormant company subsidiary of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd
  • Ffos-y-fran (commoners) Limited
    • Company number 04892620
    • Jayne Helen Lewis – Director
    • Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Director
    • Dormant company subsidiary of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd
  • Merthyr (Ffos-y-fran) Limited
    • Company number 06353565
    • David Stanley Lewis – Director
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Directors
    • Dormant company subsidiary of Merthyr Holdings Limited
  • Merthyr Holdings Limited
    • Company number 06330412
    • David Stanley Lewis – Director
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Directors
    • Subsidiary of Gwent Investments Limited
    • Holding company
  • Gwent Investments Limited
    • Company number 08936878
    • David Stanley Lewis - Director
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis - Ex-Directors
    • Investment company
  • Gwent Holdings Limited
    • Company number 10119615
    • Jayne Helen Lewis and Andrew John Lewis – Directors
    • Ultimate parent company of Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd

Individuals involved

David Stanley Lewis

Jayne Helen Lewis

Andrew John Lewis

David Lewis has already been convicted of criminal fraud, with Judge Durham-Hall telling Lewis: "When the truth was put before you you wriggled, twisted and whinged" and described Lewis as "a pathological gambler who demonstrated pathological dishonesty", concluding "What he did was unlawful, crass, stupid and dishonest." *we believe this article refers to the same David Lewis that is currently Director of MSW but will consider evidence to the contrary, so get in touch before you threaten to sue us again David 😉

Corporate structure

Published 06.02.2025

Supporters of Sirhowy Valley Country Park

Supporters of Sirhowy Valley Country Park are people of the local area in Caerphilly who have come together to oppose the proposal to mine two disused coal tips north of the town of Bedwas, threatening the adjacent Sirhowy Valley Country Park . This proposal would see the extraction and sale of 400,000 tonnes of coal that was left behind as waste within the two coal tips. The third coal tip, closest to the town of Bedwas would be untouched.

 

 

UK Government: is the left hand speaking to the right hand?

National Planning Policy Framework consultation

The UK Government launched a consultation on a limited review of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for 8 weeks from 30 July to 24 September 2024. The NPPF is an influential document that shapes planning decisions and priorities across England. It is periodically updated by the Government, following a public consultation. Although this consultation was focused on just sections of the NPPF relating to house-building and economic infrastructure, we felt this was a good opportunity to align the NPPF with the stated policy of the current UK Government not to licence any new coal mines.

Rule out planning permission for new coal mines

The UK Government has committed not to licence any new coal mines - a function of the Mining Remediation Authority (previously, The Coal Authority). However, licencing may not apply to all types of coal mining so it is important to also prevent planning permission from being given to any new coal mining applications in a 'double lock' approach. We therefore recommended that the following changes to the NPPF -

Section 17. Facilitating the sustainable use of minerals

The following text should be removed entirely:

221. c) indicate any areas where coal extraction and the disposal of colliery spoil may be acceptable;

221. d) encourage the capture and use of methane from coal mines in active and abandoned coalfield areas;

221. e) provide for coal producers to extract separately, and if necessary stockpile, fireclay so that it remains available for use.

and:

223. Planning permission should not be granted for the extraction of coal unless:

223. a) the proposal is environmentally acceptable, or can be made so by planning conditions or obligations; or

223. b) if it is not environmentally acceptable, then it provides national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh its likely impacts (taking all relevant matters into account, including any residual environment

should be replaced by:

223. Planning permission should not be granted for the extraction of coal.

1,867 respondents demand coal is ruled out in NPPF

In an e-action we organised, 2,130 supporters and member of the public contributed to the NPPF consultation to demand planning permission for new coal mining is ruled out. A little concerningly though, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government only counted 1,867 emails calling for this. Even at 1,867 emails, that means, of the 10,981 emails in total that the consultation received, 17% - or almost 1 in 5 - was a demand to rule out planning permission for new coal mines.

UK Government misses coal ban opportunity

The overwhelming consultation response for the UK Government to implement its stated position against new coal mines in the NPPF presented an early opportunity for joined-up policy-making by the new Government between the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Without this 'double lock', coal mining companies could still apply for - and obtain - planning permission for new coal mining. Theoretically, a standard coal mine still wouldn't be able to proceed because it's unable to obtain the licence, which it needs in addition to planning permission - but which the UK Government has said it would refuse.

HOWEVER, if the coal to be mined is not from a virgin coal seam (see mining coal tips), the project does not require a licence in addition to planning permission. There is well over 600 million tonnes of coal that this applies to across the UK. That's exactly why planning permission, as well as licences, needs to be categorically ruled out for new coal mining projects. Due to their complex nature, processing new coal mining applications also creates a large burden on over-stretched local planning authorities. The current wording of the NPPF creates an ambiguous and complicated assessment process for local planning authorities which our proposed wording would have simplified.

In this case of the left hand not speaking to the right hand, we hope the UK Government recognises the value of working more closely with non-governmental and civil society organisations seeking to support its stated policy aims.

Published: 08. 01. 2025