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The tide has certainly turned against opencast coal mining in the UK. Since 2010 the number of active coal mines is down from 31 to just 9 with more expected to stop selling coal soon.¹
The only new opencast coal mine expected to be started this year, Field House in County Durham is in troubled waters. The Hargreaves mine is having problems in securing the necessary bonding. This is the process by which money, like an insurance premium, is put in place to pay for restoration should the company liquidate or there be other problems at the site.
“[D]elays have occurred regarding the process of establishing the Bond arrangements for the site with our Group banking syndicate. We cannot be confident that the Bond requirements of the S106 Agreement can be completed in time to allow all soil stripping before the weather breaks” said Hargreaves.²
The company said that no work will start before March/ April and even then only if other criteria have been met. Local residents are hoping that this means that the greenfield site will never be mined.
Hargreaves has closed most of its Scottish mines, sites they bought after Scottish Coal folded, saying this is due to “continuing coal price weakness and low levels of coal demand arising from weak gas prices and an accelerated programme of UK coal generation plant closures.”³
In October 2016 Hargreaves withdrew its application to mine coal at Cauldhall Moor near Rosewell despite the application having been approved in 2013.⁴ Residents from Pittington and West Rainton are angry that the Field House site was ever approved, given that market conditions for British coal have been worsening in recent years.
Communities facing opencast coal mines on their doorsteps are often very concerned about how the area will look once mining has ended. Hargreaves’ inability to secure a bond shows that lessons have been learnt since Scottish Coal walked away from its restoration commitments when the company folded.
Fife Council has recently been successful in recovering £3.1 million from Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance PLC. It is the insurance company which held the bond for the restoration of Blair House, a former opencast coal mine.
Blair House had been owned by UK Coal and then Scottish Coal. Both companies have now liquidated.
“Royal and Sun Alliance refused to hand over the money, arguing that the exact terms of the bond meant they only had to pay out in certain circumstances. The company stated that the circumstances surrounding the closure of Blair House meant that the bond didn’t apply.”⁵
Hopefully this will mean that Fife council will now have the necessary funding to restore the site as per the original planning application. Although the area will never return to its former glory, sensitive restoration can be a step towards righting the harm this mines has caused the people and ecosystems in the area.
Earlier this week Theresa May reconfirmed that the UK will stop burning coal by 2025.⁶
 
References

Today (18th September 2017) Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that the UK will stop using coal for electricity generation by 2025.

In a speech delivered in Canada she said, “[W]e have confirmed our joint commitment to supporting the global transition away from a reliance on coal as an energy source. Once again, the UK and Canada will lead the way, and I am pleased to announce that the UK will aim to phase out unabated coal by 2025.”

The plan to phase-out coal was announced in November 2015 but progress on making this a reality has been slow. A consultation on the issue closed in February 2017 with a final decision being delayed by the snap election.

The effects of a coal phase-out were already being felt in the coal industry, as common understanding became that coal would be phase-out in 2025 when only an intention had been laid out.

Anne Harris, from the Coal Action Network says, “We welcome a final end date for coal usage in the UK. However this does not mean that all the battles in relation to coal have been won, there is still huge amounts of work to be done to get companies to begin to restore the damage caused by opencast coal mining and to support those working in the coal industry into new employment.”

“With confirmation that coal will be phase-out in 2025 we need to see the four applications for new opencast coal mines in England and Wales rejected. Specifically this creates a strong legal case to reject Banks Mining company’s application to mine coal at Highthorn, near Druridge Bay in Northumberland, which is currently awaiting the decision of the planning inspector.”

She goes on to comment that, “For the communities at the frontlines of coal extraction and climate change we can’t wait until 2025, we need to be turning off coal power stations now. People living next to coal mines in Russia, Colombia and the USA 2025 could be too late to save their homes and the ecosystems they rely on. Utility companies must quickly enact coal power station closure plans.”

For interviews or quotes from the Coal Action Network contact info@coalaction.org.uk

Bristol Rising Tide Presents:
Canaries Shut the Mine
Friday 22nd September 7pm £5
Featuring: Solana – Polyrhythmic folk world music.
The Globo Collective – psychedelic good vibes fusion.
Otherstory Puppetry – Roots of Resistance live animation show celebrating 20 years of environmental direct action with Earth First!
Cocktails, local cider from Barley Wood Orchard, snacks and a raffle with great prizes such as Patagonia bags!
Kuumba Centre, Hepburn Road, Bristol, BS2 8UD.
All proceeds with go to help pay the compensation order given to five brave people from Earth First! and Reclaim the Power for closing Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine in South Wales for the day in April 2017.
You can also contribute by donating via our crowd funder.
 

Aberthaw power station has been the dirtiest UK power station, killing 400 people a year with its toxic fumes. Coal Action Network, Bristol Rising Tide, Reclaim the Power and United Valley’s Action Group began a series of actions to close Aberthaw power station in December 2016. This follows work with communities living close to Welsh opencast coal mines and Reclaim the Power’s 2016 camp with a mass trespass against Ffos-y-frân coal mine closing it for the day. But that was far from the end of the story…
Ffos-y-frân is the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, it is very close to Merthyr Tydfil and is operated by Miller Argent. The main consumer of the coal for most of its existence has been Aberthaw power station near Barry in South Wales.

The first action against Aberthaw was a short and creative blockade of the only access road. Check it out in this short film which shows what happened and explains why we are targeting Aberthaw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awlLkoaZsb8

Aberthaw power station was the dirtiest power station in terms of nitrogen oxides in the UK, with the UK government allowing it to breach European Union air quality standards. The levels of toxins were more than double those from other power stations because Aberthaw burnt Welsh coal and supported Welsh mining jobs. In 2016 environmental lawyers, Client Earth, brought a case to the European Court of Justice which ruled against the UK government for allowing Aberthaw to kill 400 people a year through poisonous emissions.
Within two weeks activists were back at Aberthaw, this time with a more serious blockade of the power station’s only access road. This time for four hours, entirely blocking the road with two tripods, causing a large tail back of lorries, before leaving with no arrests. It was unclear whether the power station was actually asking the police to remove the blockade as its workers and bosses were absent.
Aberthaw is run by the utility company RWE nPower whose head offices in Swindon were visited within a month of the previous action. There was a visual presence at t
he enormous offices which resulted in a security shut down (although one person still managed to get inside). The protest raised awareness of the opposition to the power station amongst employees and in the local media.
 
The next action involved many more people, 150 made it to a stony south Wales beach in January to show their opposition to the power station. Marianne Owens from the PCS union said, “It’s working class people who suffer from this dirty energy,” as she addressed the crowd from the sea wall. At the demonstration demands were made for a Just Transition for coal workers to sustainable jobs. RWE was obviously concerned about blockades and stopped road deliveries during the day, making a family friendly event an effective yet non-confrontational direct action. As we filled the access road, Chris and Alyson Austin said, “no amount of deaths from this dinosaur of a power station are acceptable.” RWE had previously said it intends to address the issue of air pollution but for those of us breathing the filthy air from Aberthaw only closing the power station is acceptable.
The next action widened the circle of criticism of the power station by returning to the point of extraction, Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine. On the morning of the 21^st April a small group of people from Earth First! and Reclaim the Power stopped operations for the day. Two people and a canary sat on one of the massive excavators, stopping it from operating. At the entrance to the mine, used by HGVs to take coal from the mine to the rail head terminal, two people locked to a cattle grid. Clearing both parts of the action took 10.5 hours!
While the action was an amazing success the court case was not. All five arrested pleaded guilty, but were harshly sentenced to 18 months conditional discharge, £105 court costs and £2,000 compensation to the mining company! The ridiculously high court sentence has gone against the company as there have been a large number of media articles about the injustice of the sentencing and spreading our crowd funder to raise the money for the compensation order. The real criminals are Miller Argent who are destroying habitat, covering local houses in dust and until recently have been supplying the dirtiest UK power station.
RWE also operates three lignite mines and associated power stations in the Rhineland, Germany, extracting approximately 100 million tonnes of coal annually. Lignite or brown coal is a poor quality fossil fuel which is burnt close to the point of extraction in order to be economically viable. The Hambacher Forest occupation has been on going for several years fighting against RWE’s destruction of Hambacher Forest. This August there are three action camps occurring at the same time against coal mining in the Rhineland which you can get involved with.
So what has been achieved? Natural Resources Wales has decreased the emissions permit for the power station to 500mg/m³ to be in-line with other power stations. Aberthaw is currently off and has been since the spring. Ffos-y-frân is no longer supplying Aberthaw with coal, but perversely Miller Argent is pushing ahead with its plan to appeal against the June 2015 rejection of a new opencast coal mine adjacent to Ffos-y-frân at Nant Llesg. Even though the coal Miller Argent wanted to extract coal from Nant Llesg to supply Aberthaw, who are not using Welsh coal any more. The power station was burning its stock pile which is running low. RWE nPower say that it is going to burn imported coal, expected to be from Russia and Colombia.
Aberthaw has been breaching EU air quality limits and killing people in Wales and beyond. All coal power stations need to close now. Aberthaw is in some ways the worst and so should be closed first. Aberthaw has effectively already burnt its emissions allowance up to 2025, when the government are suggesting it will end the coal industry. Coal mining was once an important part of British communities but things have changed and local communities no longer support mining.
It is expected that Aberthaw will be operating again in the colder months of this winter. The fight to close the power station and that for reparations for the communities who have suffered as a result of opencast coal mining has not yet been won. There are opportunities for you to get involved in closing it contact info@coalaction.org.uk. The battle continues…
 

Activists from the UK joined others from across Europe last weekend (24th June) to participate in ‘CODE ROOD’ (Code Red) the first announced mass civil disobedience action for the climate in the Netherlands.
Over 350 participants in CODE RED and blocked one of the two coal terminals in the harbour for the day. The terminal belongs to Coal Transport Bulk Terminal Amsterdam (OBA), the other belongs to French power company EDF. The action thus had a direct effect on the production of fossil energy.
The activists occupied all of the major machinery including several cranes, made music and played frisbee between the mountains of coal. The terminal was completely shut down for the day.
Amsterdam harbour is a key link in the chain between coal extraction and where it is burnt. Coal is imported to Amsterdam from Colombia, South Africa and Russia, amongst other countries. Where ever coal is extracted there are conflicts between mining companies and local people. When mining occurs dust pollutes the waterways, ecosystems are destroyed and people are displaced. The UK, the Netherlands, Germany and many other countries energy systems involves this damage.
Spokesperson for Code Red Maarten said “It is clear that the government has neglected its responsibility to combat dangerous climate change. We have waited a long time for concrete climate action. It is now up to us to accelerate the energy transition.”
For many of the people participating in the action it was their first civil disobedience action.
“It made me feel very strong,” says one participant. CODE RED has empowered many people who previously felt powerless against climate destruction to commit to decisive action.
The police kept away when activists entered the site and were barely around throughout the day. They did arrest eight people trying to access the coal power station which is fed by conveyor belts from the coal stock yards and the last three people to leave the site. These people have remained anonymous in custody and are still detained by the police state.
The participants in CODE RED left the grounds of the Coal Transport Bulk Terminal Amsterdam (OBA) at half past six through the main entrance. It was a triumphant close to a day of action by the Dutch climate movement. Maarten: “This battle has been won, but we have not yet won the fight against climate change. We will continue to pursue our actions until our goals have been achieved. Oil, coal and gas must remain in the ground.”
Today’s action is timed to coincide with the two-year anniversary since the Dutch courts delivered a historical verdict in the climate case brought by Dutch citizens and Urgenda. The Dutch State was ordered to protect its citizens against the dangerous effects of climate change by taking measures to significantly reduce its CO2 emissions – specifically 25% reduction by 2020. As there are not any effective measures being put in place to achieve this, we as citizens are coming into action.
The port of Amsterdam is the largest gasoline port in the world and the second largest coal port in Europe. The port of Amsterdam has decided to close its ports for coal by 2030. That is too late to keep climate change within the agreed limits. “We demand that the port of Amsterdam quickly closes its doors to coal, oil and gasoline. The Netherlands must start the transition to a sustainable society to limit global warming to 1.5°C,” spokesperson Harriet said. “We also think it is important that there be a fair transition fund for workers in the fossil industry and other sectors affected by the energy transition.”
The camp and action were amazingly well organised. People from a wide range of backgrounds were welcomed and included without watering down the politics of the camp and the clear links between capitalism, resource exploitation and human rights.
The action group CODE ROOD is part of a worldwide citizens movement against climate destruction by the fossil fuel industry. People are stopping coal-stations in India, pipelines in the US, brown-coal mines in Germany, fracking in Brazil and oil-drilling in Nigeria.

Wednesday 21st June saw the end of a three week public inquiry into the fate of Druridge Bay.

Save Druridge, the local opposition group and Friends of the Earth showed why this area’s value is far greater than 3 million tonnes of coal. Local people spoke from their heart of the tranquility of the beaches, the abundance of wildlife including pink foot geese, and the jobs in the sustainable tourism industry. Expert witnesses showed that coal’s rein is over and the final nail in the coffin could come before the government’s proposed phase-out of 2025.

Bank’s tried to claim it is a sensitive business, ignoring its history of issues with leaky lakes, inflated jobs statistics, ugly land restoration and failing to deliver on other approved sites in England and Scotland.

The planning inspector was alarmed by Bank’s decreasing options for sorting out waste mine water and saw through promises of ending sand extraction from the beach.

Druridge and the surrounding villages have seen their share of coal mining. Nature has crept back and softened the lines of previous destruction. The residents have rallied together in a brilliant sustained campaign against this mine, even though the short-sited council approved the application last summer.

This case is already a historic one. It is the first planning application to be Called In on climate change grounds and the first coal mine application which had been approved by the local council to be re-decided by the Secretary of State.

Everyone who spoke against the ludicrous mine did an amazing job. Let’s hope that the planning inspector and Secretary of State make the right decision and stop this mine, setting a strong precedent against the other three applications remaining in the planning system.

In solidarity

West Cumbria Mining have submitted a planning application to mine coking coal from Woodhouse Colliery Whitehaven. The mine would produce more than 2.4 million tonnes of coal a year, for 50 years.

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole are opposing the application on the grounds that it is too close to the nuclear infrastructure at Sellafield. Their website is here.

If you want to object to this mine there is only a short period of time available. Submissions must reach the council by the 10th July.

“There are many reasons to keep Cumbrian coal in the hole not least because the plan is ludicrously close to Sellafield, the proposed mining of coal seams would extend to within 5 miles of Sellafield and even closer to the proposed Moorside site. We have just five weeks to send in objections to Cumbria County Council.”

There is a sample letter of objection on the Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole website.

West Cumbria Mining plan to export much of the coal via railways to ports for export (“to the overseas markets of Europe or Asia”) and the UK’s three main steelworks.

The steel works in the UK provide vital jobs in the three remaining large steelworks and produce a raw material used in the production of wind turbines, buildings and many other everyday things. In 2015 the UK imported 4.75 million tonnes of coking coal mainly from the USA (44%) and Russia (27%). 72,000 tonnes of coking coal was produced from UK mines, although there are currently no mines exclusively producing coking coal.

The proposed mine would be predominantly for export, adding to global transport of commodities, rather than reducing it by displacing UK imports.

The coal is of higher quality than that predominantly burnt in coal power stations, but it is possible that this coal will be burnt in the power stations in the UK.

The business is based in Sussex. West Cumbria Mining is headed by coal mining engineer Mark Kirkbride, and has secured £14.7m in private equity backing from EMR Capital Resources.

Starting a new coal mine, close to a major nuclear power station to produce a raw material for overseas steel manufacturing seems like a illogical thing to do.

— Interim snap shot of the days the Coal Action Network has seen of the public inquiry into Banks Mining’s application to opencast mine at Druridge Bay. —
The public inquiry which will decide the future of Druridge Bay in Northumberland is reaching the end of its second week. Bank’s mining has presented its witnesses and Northumberland County Council have presented most of theirs.
Save Druridge‘s speakers today (Thursday 8^th June) presented strong reasoning against the mine. Lynne spoke of the risk to vulnerable road users, cyclists, horse riders, tractors, motorcaravans and horse drawn vehicles.
Liz spoke of the risks on the A1068, which Banks lawyer tried to say was not used by cyclists for pleasure, but Liz countered this and the idea that cyclists shouldn’t have a choice of ways to travel. She showed that making this road more dangerous would affect off road access to many miles of land.
A local business owner, Neil who owns a caravan site very close to the site said:
“Peace and tranquillity will be gone for a significant amount of time [if the mine were to go ahead].”
Banks tried to convince him that their experts say there will be no noise or dust. Lies he clearly saw through. Saying that the potential of a mine was already damaging his family’s business.
From the Save Druridge witnesses we moved to independent evidence. The range of points of view, all opposing the application, was comprehensive. One contributed to the close relationship between Northumberland County Council and Banks Mining.
“A piece of my heart will always stay buried in the dunes,” said a Newcastle University student in a very moving and emotive statement.
A retired GP who used to work in Ashington said his house would have an uninterrupted view of the opencast if it was approved. At the moment, he can see the length of Druridge bay and the dunes. He is on beach everyday and in the dunes, when the tide is in. He said an opencast mine at the site would seriously impact his retirement.
Dr Richard Quimby said, “Better not to have dust at all when you don’t need to have it…
We don’t have to have an opencast there in the first place, it isn’t required. It is just taking that chance (with our health).”
Anne Harris from the Coal Action Network showed in our two submissions, that there is not a significant demand for coal, as of the eight power stations Eggborough and Uskmouth and converting to gas and biomass respectively, Drax want to convert to biomass (dependent on government funding), Fiddler’s Ferry burns little coal, EDF looks like it may close its two power stations as it has handed back two of its three year Capacity Market contracts; Aberthaw is to burn only imported coal, leaving only Ratcliffe as a potential user of this coal.
In the opening statements Banks said that they could pursue the none power station coal markets. However, with Ffos-y-fran, the UK’s largest coal mine, is no longer supplying Aberthaw it is looking to join Hargreaves’ last Scottish opencast mine in supplying the speciality coal market with a combination of 1 million tonnes of coal a year. There is only a small amount of demand for coal in Britain and an over supply.
Bank’s proposed benefits for the area, jobs and restoration were shown to be less than promised.
Another student speaking said: “I try not to invoke too much emotion in this speech, but I think our emotion is what brings most of us here today.”
She first highlighted the privilege we have of living in the global North, with the most basic of human needs being satisfied. This contrasted very well with the letter she read, from the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO).
“Our community/organization also has first hand experience of the blasting, dust, water theft and other impacts of an opencast coal mining operation 10kms (6.2 miles away). We also are severely challenged by climate change as a result of South Africa’s reliance on fossil fuels, the worst being a severe seven year drought that resulted in many deaths of our livestock and even wildlife in the neighbouring Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park,” Billy Mzokhona Mnqondo, Co-Founder of MCEJO
The letter, co-ordinated by Yes to Life, No to Mining, calls on Northumberland County Council and UK planning authorities to reject UK-based Banks Mining’s proposed Highthorn Mine on the basis of its potential climate impacts. “The approval of a coal-fired power station in South Africa was recently rejected by our courts because the application had not considered the impacts of climate change. If Africa is taking cognizance of the reality of climate change, we call on the UK to do the same… We would not wish on anyone else what we have had to put up with ourselves.”
A few people discussed the need to reduce green house gas emissions, not only for future generations, but because the impacts are already being felt by people in our country in addition to the worse impacts felt abroad, particularly in low lying nations.
David Muller on behalf of Stephen Hemsley said:
“Sustainable development. Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future to meet their own needs.” Clearly this isn’t the case with this application. Destroying the area by opencasting will damage the biodiversity and natural resources.
A speaker from Save Newcastle Wildlife said Banks are:
“Clutching at claims there will be no noise, no dust and no devastation.”
Banks were keen to say there would be no dust, but many of the witnesses strong rebuked this claim as wishful thinking.
In Bank’s work they have tried to claim that mining this coal will add to globally available stocks whilst displacing coal imported to the UK. An irrational line of argument destroyed by Friends of the Earth’s excellent legal team.
Bank’s lawyer has tried to say that the section 106 agreement, the planning obligations cannot be changed as there are too many interested parties. This is untrue, an inquiry needs to be able to vary conditions.
The inquiry is expected to run until Wednesday 21^st June with a final decision later in the year.
Rachel, Save Newcastle Wildlife summaries well with, “We are not different from superior to or in charge of the natural environment… what we inflict on nature we inflict on ourselves… Coal is on the wrong side of history.”

UK planners have the opportunity to stop a new open cast coal mine in Druridge Bay due to climate change concerns. For the sake of a liveable and prosperous future for all, they must take it, say coal-affected communities from South Africa.
Communities fighting the expansion of coal mining in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, have reached out in support of UK allies campaigning to stop a new open cast coal mine in Druridge Bay, Northumberland.
In an open letter published today, the Mfolozi Community Environmental Justice Organisation (MCEJO) calls on Northumberland County Council and UK planning authorities to reject UK-based Banks Mining’s proposed Highthorn Mine on the basis of its potential climate impacts.
“Almost 100% (of known coal reserves) must remain buried to avoid exceeding the aspirational 1.5°C goal set by the world’s governments in the Paris Climate Accord… We urge you take this historic opportunity to make a globally significant statement about the UK’s climate leadership by rejecting this mine,” writes Billy Mnqondo of MCEJO.
Read the full letter here.
In a UK first, after initially being given the green light by Northumberland County Council, the Highthorn Mine has been called in by UK planning authorities on climate change grounds.
This move has been welcomed by local campaigners from community group Save Druridge Bay, which is opposing the mine. Save Druridge Bay and national organisations including Friends of the Earth UK and Coal Action Network argue the Highthorn Mine would not only contribute negatively to climate change, but also destroy a beloved landscape and endanger wildlife including otters, owls and orchids.
With UK demand for thermal coal of the kind the Highthorn Mine would produce rapidly dwindling, and without major established export markets, campaigners say the mine is uneconomical and would only serve to harm a coastal area with a self-sustaining tourism industry.
The new planning hearing is set to start on 31^st May and and will run until 2^nd June. MCEJO’s letter will be read out as evidence during the hearing, reminding planners that climate change knows no borders and stating solidarity with the people of Druridge Bay in their struggle.
This is the beginning of an article from the Yes to Life, No to Mining website. To keep reading click here.