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.
Your objection means much more if it's put in your own words why you want Merthyr Tydfil Council to refuse the application to downgrade this huge restoration project. Here's some points you might choose to include, or go straight to the objection form:
This will take you to the Merthyr Tydfil Council's short objection form.
Ironically, the original approval of the opencast coal mine was to fund the restoration of the area which had been scarred by previous iron ore and coal mining. Key to the agreed restoration plan is that the huge overburden mounds (coal tips), currently dumped in 3 mountainous piles around the site, would be returned to the void, both of which were created by the opencast coal mining. That would return the site to the undulating landscape it was before and in sync with the rest of the lanscape in that area. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd agreed to this restoration plan in 2015, when it took over operations at the site - but is now trying to wriggle out of that contract.
We got internationally renowned foresnic accountants, C. Lewis & Company, to analyse mining company Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd's accounts. Guess what? Not only can the mining company afford the full restoration, it's set the money aside for it, and it can't spend it on anything else....unless the Council agrees to downgrade the restoration by granting the company's cut-price restoration application.
It's a stitch up! Don't let it happen
The new proposal was published on Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council's website on Friday 21/02/2025. It is a plan to do as little as possible that would justify the company getting its hands on the £15 million currently held by the Council in an ESCROW account. But that £15 million was only intended to cover the barest necessities to make the site safe in case Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd goes bust. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd hasn't gone bust though, and should be stumping up around £75-110 million to pay for the restoration.
The 218-page environmental impact assessment for the new plan is overflowing with greenwash. The assessment celebrates how this opencast coal mine removed the scars of historic mining from the landscape, but then claims that the lack of restoration it's now proposing for the opencast coal mine will be an 'educational resource' and testament to the area's mining history.
The assessment also claims that not moving the overburden mounds back to the void will save CO2 and dust from HGV machinery - yet where were these concerns during the 15 years of mining and final year of illegal coal mining? The CO2 from these earth works will pale in comparison to the coal mining and burning that occurred at the site until recently. The mining company has always claimed that it can suppress dust pollution from the site - why is it suddenly unable to now?
The assessment fails to account for the impact that a loss of land and carbon sequestion will have over the decades. The State of Nature Wales 2023 reveals the devastating scale of nature loss across the country and the risk of extinction for many species. This is not the time to cut the restoration budget by around 80-90% of a huge site - much of which has been off-limits to nature for too long.
Coal Action Network has obtained new legal advice from expert Barristers Estelle Dehon (KC) and Rowan Clapp of Cornerstone Chambers, London. Examining relevant legislation from 1990s, the Barristers argues that mining coal previously discarded in coal tips require a licence from the UK’s Mining Remediation Authority (national regulator). This backs up previous legal advice we’ve received from Barrister Toby Fisher of Matrix Chambers, London.
Currently deep and opencast coal mines require a licence from the national regulator, in addition to planning permission. The national regulator recently refused a licence for the West Cumbria coal mine, preventing the project from starting. But the national regulator and DESNZ both deny that legislation means mining coal tips requires a licence.
Section 25 (1) states “coal-mining operations” shall not “be carried on by any person except under and in accordance with a licence”. In plain speak, this means a ‘coal mining operation’ needs a licence. So how is a coal mining operation defined?
Section 25 (2) defines ‘Coal mining operations’ as the “winning, working and getting” of coal. It’s only relevant if it’s in the UK and if it’s not just to move coal out of the way to do something else, like build foundations for a house.
The legislation includes within ‘Coal mining operations’ things like dumping soil that was removed during coal mining, even if this happens later and outside of the mine. If the act of making a coal tip is included, then mining that coal tip should be included too.
Mining coal tips for previously discarded coal within them is clearly ‘getting’ coal, putting it within the legal definition of Coal mining operations’. For that matter, mining coal tips also fits within case-law definitions of “winning and working”. The Welsh Government’s Minerals technical advice note (MTAN2) also backs this up, defining ‘coal working’ as including the “recovery of coal from tips”.
Section 336 of the 1990 Act defines a ‘mineral working deposit’ to mean "any deposit of material remaining after minerals have been extracted from land or otherwise deriving from the carrying out of operations for the winning and working of minerals in, on or under land" – which easily encompasses coal tips.
Section 55 (4) (a) (i) defines a ‘mining operation’ as the “removal of material […] from a mineral-working deposit.”. As coal tips amount to a mineral-working deposit, it follows that mining coal tips amounts to ‘mining operation’. The 1990 Act requires any mining operation to get planning permission – accordingly, mining coal tips requires planning permission under this definition, which has been accepted since the Act was introduced.
This planning law is aligned with Barristers’ Estelle Dehon’s (KC), Rowan Clapp’s, and Toby Fisher’s interpretation of the The Coal Industry Act 1994, which came 4 years later.
The Mining Remediation Authority (MRA) has stated that it does not consider coal tip extraction to be a ‘coal mining operation’ because it claims that coal tip extraction does not meet any of the requirements listed within the s.65(1) of the 1994 Act definition of a ‘coal mining operation’ or a ‘coal mine’. As a result, the MRA states that it has no power to licence or not licence mining a coal tip. And DESNZ adds that it does not plan to make any changes so that coal tip mining projects would require a licence from the MRA in future (based on the understanding it is not currently required, which is against our Barristers’ understanding).
This boils down to a difference in interpreting some heavyweight law that’s over 30 years old. Some of the argument hinges on whether you read a sentence such as “to be a thing, it must include the following: X, Y, ‘and’ Z” to mean it needs to be all of X,Y,Z to be the thing, or it’s enough for it just to be Y, for example. The only way to settle the argument is a costly court case with our Barristers on one side and UK Government Barristers on the other side – and the UK Government has much deeper pockets than us.
The civil servants within the UK Government are right now busy cooking up new legislation to ban the MRA from issuing any new licences for coal mining – which is great news because all coal mining needs a licence…so that means no new coal mining projects (existing licences can still be used). The problem is that it won’t ban mining coal tips, because of the MRA’s belief that this doesn’t require a licence in the first place. That means, once this new legislation passes, the only place coal can be mined in the UK is coal tips – which will still be fair game, undermining the intention of the coal ban to stop coal mining.
This is a particularly absurd situation as mining previously discarded coal from coal tips or mining new coal from opencast coal mines involves the same processes – moving large volumes of soil around with HGVs, separating spoil from saleable coal, transporting that coal etc. and generating the same local environmental and community impacts such as noise, dust, and disruption. It will also have the same climate change effects when burned. Mining coal tips is an industry that dates back until at least the 1980s. With over 5,000 coal tips around the UK and a live proposal to mine two coal tips in South Wales of over 400,000 tonnes of coal, we begin to understand why it matters whether coal tips are included within the new legislation to ban coal mining.
PLAN A
The easiest option would be for the civil servants beavering away at the new coal ban legislation to simply include an amendment requiring coal tips to need a licence (via clarification or change to existing legislation). This would bring coal tip mining, opencast mining, and deep mining all within the same requirement for a licence – which the new legislation would then ban in one swoop. Find out more about the simple legal wording our Barristers have suggested including to do this.
PLAN B
If Ministers and civil servants refuse to explicitly include coal tips within the new legislation, we are going to have to consider a legal challenge to the UK Government’s belief that mining coal tip doesn’t need a licence. If we win that, then mining coal tips would be banned within the new legislation by default. We hope you’ll support our fundraising efforts if we are forced to do that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Restoration plans are supposed to return the land back to a better state than before coal mining began. In reality this rarely happens, but it somehow still convinces planners to grant permission for mining. The new plan to downgrade the restoration tries to shift this 'baseline' state of the land by 17 years from before coal mining began to just after coal mining stopped. This is so the new restoration downgrade only has to improve a Mordor-like landscape ravaged by 16 years of coal mining, drastically lowering the threshold. But there's no justification for setting this new starting point.
The new downgrade proposes to permanently leave huge health and safety hazards in a landscape that is in easy walking distance from the population of Merthyr Tydfil, even encouraging the public into this area. There are tangible risks to life and limb from a very deep flooded void, to a sheer cliff edge and massive coal tips, one of which has already suffered large slip. All of these hazards are supposed to be removed from the landscape at the end of coal mining, but Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd is putting its profits before people's lives.
The flooded quarry, Dorothea in Talysarn, Gwynedd is an abandoned quarry left in a similar state to what is now being proposed for Ffos-y-fran. But since 1990, there's been over 20 tragic deaths at Dorothea quarry.
3 colossal coal tips were supposed to be removed at the end of coal mining but the coal company wants to leave them where they are, despite the fact they leach toxic metals into the surrounding ecosytem, which it admits is home to protected Great Crested Newts. To make it worse, one of the many cuts to the previously agreed restoration plan is to stop maintaining the ponds which capture "chemical loads" from rainwater running off the colossal coal tips, admitting that they may 'silt up', which would potentially harm the endangered Great Crested Newts, as well as spread the "chemical loads" further into rivers and streams.
In one of the most blatant greenwash attempts we've seen in a while, this coal company suddenly cares deeply for minimising CO2 emissions. This, it claims, is why it proposes to leave the 37 million cubic metres of mine waste, soil, and rocks in the three massive dumps its created, rather than refill the opencast void with it - as was the original plan. Earth-moving requires HGVs burning deisel... but the emissions spared by leaving behind 3 colossal coal tips overshadowing 58,000 people would amount to just 2% of the illegal coal mining Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd did over 15 months after its planning permission expired. If the void is filled in with the coal tips, it'll also provide a greater carbon sink cancelling out that CO2 of these earthworks even more. This isn't about CO2, its about money - which Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd want to turn into even greater profits.
One of the main cuts to the original restoration plan is to leave 37 million cubic metres of mining waste, soil, and rocks in 3 colossal coal tips scattered around the site and towering above nearby residents of Merthyr Tydfil by up to 210 metres, disfiguring the landscape forever. One of these coal tips, nearest to residential homes, has already suffered instability with a recent and large coal tip slip 2024. The combined pressures of climate change, illicit scrambler bikes, and time could create further instability and dangers.
Many coal tips require regular maintenance and all disused coal tips must be monitored for instability. Long after the coal company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, has left with its tens of millions in profits, there will be ongoing maintenance costs likely to amount to millions and likely to be funded by tax payers.
Against official guidance, the aftercare period being proposed for nature restoration is just 5 years. Guidance recommends double this to 10 years to ensure tree and hedge plantings are successful before the coal company is allowed to wash its hands of responsibility. 5 years does not give long enough to see what plantings need to be replaced and to support the growth of those - instead, failed plantings will either be abandoned or the tax payer will have to pay for replanting and maintaining those areas.
Prior to opencast coal mining, the area formed part of the Gelligaer and Merthyr Common, an upland area of rough grassland grazed by sheep, cows and horses. Commoning is a way of life with a rich history dating back to 1066 and enshrined in the Magna Carta (1215).
The cuts to the original plan mean leaving behind a huge flooded mining void and 3 colossal coal tips. This will severely reduce the ability for Commoners to exercise their historic rights to graze their animals on the land. It also represents a broken promise to return this land to the Commoners after coal mining. Instead, the hazards that would be left behind pose risk of injury and death to the Commoners' livestock.
A whole way of life and a living part of our history is threatened by the cuts proposed to the original restoration plan, as well as the preservation of native Welsh breeds of sheep and cows like the South Wales Mountain Sheep, or Welsh Black cows.
Through the thick layer of greenwash, the real reason for trying to cut every corner on the original restoration plan is admitted by the company's representative: "It was established that there are insufficient funds available to achieve the 2015 restoration strategy and therefore an alternative scheme is required.". But it's a matter of public record that this is not true, with £91.2 MILLION set aside by the company to fund the original restoration plan. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd even claimed tax discounts on this from HMRC.
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.
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 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.
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: 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.
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?
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:
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 😉
The Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill (‘the Bill’) was prompted by a series of coal tip landslides that occurred in Wales following storms’ Ciara and Dennis in 2020, including a major landslide of a disused coal tip in Tylorstown. The Bill seeks to update the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, to more effectively manage the 2,573 coal tips and over 20,000 non-coal tips within Wales so they do not threaten human welfare, by reason of their instability. To drive this management framework, the Bill proposes to create a new public body – the Disused Tips Authority for Wales (‘the Authority’), which would assess, register, monitor and manage disused tips.
To prevent disused tips from threatening human welfare through instability. The aim is for the Bill to be preventative and proactive rather than reactive. The first section of the Integrated Impact Assessment discusses the need to anticipate impacts of climate change on tip stability, such as the trend of increasing rainfall and storms. It seeks to do this by:
The current categories of R,A,B,C, and D would be replaced by a simpler two-step assessment process. The first step would be a desk-based risk assessment, the results of which may recommend a subsequent full assessment.
Key changes introduced by the Bill include:
Context 1
The Integrated Impact Assessment claims the Bill does not deal with coal tip remediation, and does not increase the likelihood of movement and potential combustion of coal that can accompany coal tip remediation. The Assessment goes further to state that the Bill’s preventative action will reduce the need for coal tip remediation and works required after coal tip slips. Coal Action Network believes these claims to be sincere but inaccurate.
Coal tip remediation involving coal removal and earthworks is presented as a solution to permanently prevent future coal tip instability. It does not substantively differ from other actions such as irrigation to prevent instability.
The UK Government’s proposed coal licencing ban wouldn’t currently prevent ‘re-mining’ coal tips. Additionally the patchwork of laws and policies in Wales is failing to prevent mining companies extracting coal or bringing new applications for coal mining and extensions in the past few years, with Local Planning Authorities shouldering the burden. This Bill may inadvertently increase pressure on resource-strapped Local Planning Authorities by fuelling a new wave of coal extraction applications, such as the current proposal by ERI Ltd to ‘re-mine’ two coal tips in Bedwas in a practice that dates back to at least 1984.
ERI Ltd is a private company offering to permanently remove tip stability risks at no charge to the landowner (Caerphilly Council) in return for selling the extracted ‘waste coal’, which we believe would be an attractive prospect to other landowners facing coal tip liabilities under the new Bill too.
Our recommendation 1
To prevent the unintended potential for the Bill to encourage an industry oriented towards ‘re-mining’ disused coal tips under the guise of preventing future instability, we recommend that the Bill includes a provision prohibiting coal extraction for commercial gain from disused coal tips.
Context 2
In our context to recommendation 1, we outline how – in practice – the Bill may fuel an industry oriented towards ‘re-mining’ coal tips. As a result, the decision to exclude a full Climate Change Impact Assessment and Carbon Impact Assessment from the Bill’s Integrated Impact Assessment should be reversed.
Our recommendation 2
The Bill should be accompanied by a full Climate Change Impact Assessment and Carbon Impact Assessment, given the potential of the Bill in its current form to encourage applications for coal tip ‘re-mining’.
Context 3
Over 85% of disused coal tips (and 90% of coal tips with higher stability risks) in Wales are located in the South Wales valleys, and – according to the Welsh Indices of Multiple Deprivation – are based in communities classed as amongst the 10% most deprived in Wales. As the Government’s Integrated Impact Assessment outlines, preventing coal tip slips would benefit lives, land, and housing in these areas.
Our recommendation 3
To realise this benefit, it is vital that the design and execution of stability works on coal tips prioritise minimising potential impacts on the wellbeing of these socio-economically disadvantaged communities – for example in operating hours, HGV movements, flora clearance, restriction of public access to green spaces etc.
The Welsh Government presented the long-awaited Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill to the Senedd in December 2024. Read our policy brief on what it needs on-page.
Coal tips, also known as coal spoil or slag heaps, and overburden are large mounds of waste soil, rocks, and fragments of coal that was dumped there as it was originally in the way between a mining company and the profitable coal it wanted to mine. Sometimes, mining companies promised to return these coal tips down the holes or into the voids they created, but often claimed bankruptcy or found loopholes to avoid this costly process. There are over 2,500 coal tips peppering Wales alone.
The coal tip slip in the town of Cwmtillery on Sunday 24th November 2024 occurred during Storm Bert, which brought intense rainfall. The coal tip is Category D, which means it is monitored every 6 months – and the last report did not flag any major issues. It follows on from the coal tip slip in 2020, which sent 60,000 tonnes of soil and rocks tumbling in Tylorstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf. That compares with 40,000 tonnes of debris that were dislodged and tumbled into a school in the infamous Aberfan disaster of 1966. Unlike the Aberfan tragedy, the two recent coal tip slips luckily resulted in no loss of human life.
What each of these coal tips have in common is that they occurred after a period of heavy rain. Leader of Blaenau Gwent council Steve Thomas commented on the recent coal tip slip in Cwmtillery, saying "We can confirm that we are dealing with a localised landslide believed to be caused by excess water as a consequence of weather experienced during Storm Bert."
Geologist Dr Jamie Price explained: "Both more prolonged and more intense rainfall events will heighten the risk of coal tip collapses….Increases in the moisture content of the coal tips and increases in groundwater level in general can affect the stability of these coal tips and could induce failure and collapsing of the coal tips."
A Cabinet Statement by the Welsh Government in 2023 stated “Winter rainfall has increased in Wales in recent decades, and the Met Office predicts that it will increase further as a result of global warming.”. By 2050 it's thought it could get 6% more rainy in winter in Wales, with as much as 13% more rain by the 2080s. Human-induced climate change made the heavy storm downpours and total rainfall across the UK and Ireland between October 2023 and March 2024 more frequent and intense, according to a rapid attribution analysis by an international team of leading climate scientists. This is exactly what we recently experienced with Storm Bert which led to the most recent coal tip slip in Cwmtillery.
ERI Ltd is a mining company that’s seized on community fears in Bedwas, South Wales, to propose mining two of coal tips in the area of around 500,000 tonnes of ‘waste’ coal contained within them on the promise of levelling out the coal tips afterwards. ERI Ltd is tempting Caerphilly County Council with the offer to do this at no cost to the Council, claiming it’ll use a portion of the profits gained by selling the coal it removes from the tips. The problem with this approach is:
The mining company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, is trying to do the residents of Merthyr Tydfil out of tens of millions of pounds worth of restoration at Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine by massively reducing the restoration it agreed to carry out at the end of 16 years of coal mining. To understand the lasting impacts this would have, and why we must resist it, we've made a guide on the community impacts of two other 'zombie' restorations in South Wales where the same happened.
Former opencast coal mining sites like East Pit, Margam Parc Slip, Nant Helen, and Selar are all recent examples of 'zombie restorations' carried out on budgets often amounting to 10% of what the promised restoration would have cost - sometimes even less. Ffos-y-fran looks set to join that list. Restorations are so-called because they are meant to return natural life to the area after coal mining has finished, often with promises of even more natural habitat and life than there was before. But just like zombies, these restorations is that they can appear fairly normal if you don't look too closely and you didn't know what it looked like before (depending on the movie!)... but there's little natural life in these areas after coal mining.
Often planning permission is granted for coal mining on the basis that the area will be restored with even better natural habitats and public amenity (access, facilities etc.) than before. Surrounding communities pay the price for the promised restoration with years of noise, dust, and disruption to their daily lives. When that restoration is inevitably denied by profiteering mining companies, communities report:
The UK was one of the first countries in the world to mine coal so industrially. Many of those coal mines were abandoned, not all of which are even mapped - though over two thousand recorded waste dumps (coal tips) in South Wales alone hints at the scale. Opencast coal mining left particularly visible scars on the landscape so the voids left over were meant to be filled in after the coal was extracted. When applying for coal mining permission, coal mining companies would sign contracts binding them to pay glowing nature reserves to be established after the coal was extracted. But most of the time, these companies siphon off the profits and declare bankruptcy, or find legal loopholes, to dodge their responsibilities to restore the mess they created.
Fortunately, Councils usually require that a small amount is paid to them by the coal mining company either at the start of a coal mine or as it progresses. But this is often around just 10% of the cost of restoring an opencast coal mine. So when the coal mining companies wriggle out of their contractual duty to clean up the mess they created, the Councils are often forced to then pay these same companies these small amounts of money to do basic works to make the site at least safer and less of an eye-sore for the communities living around it - but at 10%, that money doesn't go far, and can't erase the injustice of broken promises to those communities who also paid in years of coal mining, noise, dust, and disruption. Read our flagship report tracking restoration an seven recent sites across South Wales.
To restore the site of a sprawling opencast coal mine can cost over £100 million. The original Ffos-y-fran restoration scheme is estimated to cost £75-125 million. Merthyr Tydfil Council got £15 million from the coal mining company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd in 2019, after taking the company to court. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd is now refusing to fund the restoration it agreed to, despite posting record profits and selling an extra c640,000 tonnes of coal than it was permitted to.
Despite the injustice of it, the Merthyr Tydfil Council's £15 million will theoretically go further if it's paid to Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd to carry out a zombie restoration compared to a new company, as Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd already has its machinery and employees on site from when it was coal mining. The same happened when Celtic Energy Ltd refused to fund the restoration of four coal mines it operated in South Wales, stealing £millions from local communities and paying their Directors huge bonuses that year. Each Council paid Celtic Energy Ltd even more money to carry out zombie restorations at each site, leaving a legacy of bitterness in local communities that's alive today.
Zombie restorations typically cut corners in the following areas:
In May 2023, Coal Action Network wrote to the Climate Change, Energy, and Infrastructure Committee (CCEIC) of the Welsh Senedd, informing the Committee of the ongoing illegal coal mining at Ffos-y-fran in Merthyr Tydfil, and the Council and Welsh Government’s refusal to use their enforcement powers to prevent the daily extraction of over 1,000 tonnes of coal. After being informed of this context, the CCEIC committed to a short committee inquiry on Ffos-y-fran and the broader failure of restoration of former opencast coal mine sites, with oral evidence sessions in April and May 2024, in which Coal Action Network participated. In August 2024, the CCEIC published its report on the handling of Ffos-y-fran and restoration of opencast coal mining sites across South Wales, citing ‘missed opportunities’ and referring to Ffos-y-fran as “symbol of the system's failures”. Both the Welsh Government and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council (MTCBC) responded in September 2024 to the 26 recommendations contained in the CCEIC’s report. A selection of their responses are summarised or quoted below with our analysis following each. This is the brief version, check out our full analysis report with accompanying pictures.
The Welsh Government should commission an independent review to assess the extent of, the funding needed to restore opencast sites to an acceptable level. The independent, review should consider what constitutes an “acceptable level” in consultation with local, authorities and communities.
Welsh Government isn’t liable for funding a programme dealing with open cast mining and land reclamation. Welsh Government has had statutory powers over ‘derelict land’ since April 2006, to protect public safety, create development land and enhance the environmental and social well-being of Wales. In recent years funding for such activity “has been restricted”. The Welsh Government is therefore concerned that assessing the costs to restore open cast sites may create an expectation that Welsh Government will then fund that restoration.
The operator and landowner is responsible for restoration and aftercare of opencast sites. They must also ensure that sufficient finance is set aside to enable them to meet restoration and aftercare obligations.
The Welsh Government repeat this through its response to the CCEIC’s recommendations, yet not once explain who is responsible when the operator and landowner fail to, or claim not to have, set aside sufficient finance to restore the site – which has happened at around 7 sites within the past 10 years in South Wales alone.
The Welsh Government should require local authorities to ensure all Planning Officers’ reports are available online alongside associated planning documents, including revised, restoration plans, where relevant.
We agree that transparency in planning decision making must be achieved, however, insisting on specific web publishing requirements at this time is premature.
The thrust of recommendation 9 is to ensure Planning Officer’s reports are made public, as Planning Officers’ reports summarise in plain English numerous technical planning documents. Public access to this key report would greatly improve transparency. The Welsh Government should urge Councils to make Planning Officers’ reports publicly accessible, where possible.
The Welsh Government should reconsider the proposal from the 2014 report to establish a virtual “Centre of Excellence” for restoration planning, particularly in light of potential coal-tip reclamation proposals, and lead discussions with local government on how to implement this.
Given our existing presumption against coal extraction, we expect “very few schemes being brought forward”. Our primary focus is to ensure that disused tips are safe and to deliver a modernised, fit-for-purpose regulatory regime. After the disused mine and quarry tips Bill is passed The Welsh Government will take “a more detailed strategic approach to mining and industrial legacy in Wales – this will need to include reclamation of disused tips and management of open cast mining.”
Contrary to the Welsh Government’s expectation of “very few schemes”, right now there are two schemes proposing coal extraction in South Wales, and a further application to downgrade the remediation scheme for Ffos-y-fran is expected before the end of this year. All these schemes would benefit from the kind of oversight the CCEIC are proposing with its recommendation for a Centre of Excellence, so action by the Welsh Government is needed now rather than years into the future.
The Welsh Government must engage with the UK Government with the aim of removing the Coal Authority’s statutory duty to maintain and develop an economically viable coal mining industry.
Whereas we would wish for the Coal Authority to remove its statutory duty to maintain and develop an economically viable coal mining industry, this duty has no practical effect in Wales… The Welsh Government is confident that it has in place the necessary policy and processes to ensure the climate emergency and nature emergency are fully reflected in any decision making.
Contrary to the Welsh Government’s confidence, its policies were deemed compatible with an opencast coal mine extension just last year in 2023. Additionally, the Welsh Government Minister for Climate Change Julie James wrote to the UK Government in 2021 stating that: “…we consider the statutory duty of the Coal Authority to develop and maintain a viable coal extraction industry must be removed if we are to achieve our policy ambitions…”, which is at odds with the Welsh Government’s response to the CCEIC’s recommendation, and there hasn’t been relevant Welsh policy evolution in the meantime to explain this new position.
The Welsh Government should review and update the Minerals Technical Advice Note 2 (MTAN2) to ensure it is fit for purpose, particularly in the context of new developments and coal tip remediation.
Minerals Technical Advice Note 2 Coal (MTAN2) contains comprehensive planning guidance which is robust about restoration and aftercare schemes for coal extraction. Along with all other planning policy, MTAN2 is kept under continual review to ensure it is kept up to date, fit for purpose and relevant.
The Welsh Government released MTAN2 in 2009, so it fails to reflect the many relevant policy developments over the past 15 years. The Welsh Government’s refusal to review MTAN2 is also bewildering given the policy has ostensibly failed to secure decent restoration of numerous coal mining sites across South Wales since its implementation. MTAN2 needs to be reviewed in line with the CCEIC’s recommendation.
The Welsh Government should incorporate provisions for the restoration of former opencast sites within the forthcoming Disused Tips (Mines and Quarries) Bill.
“In his Legislative Statement on 9 July 2024, the then First Minister made clear that inclusion of provisions relating to restoration of former opencast sites within the forthcoming Disused Tips (Mines and Quarries) Bill (the Bill) is not feasible at this time.” The Welsh Government cites further delay due to expansion of scope, and affordability as the key reasons for its position.
Coal tips are created by the act of deep coal mining. Overburden mounds are created by the act of opencast coal mining – there is little difference between the two in their risk or cause. The other hazards posed by abandoned and under-restored opencast coal mining sites should also be dealt with in the same legislation, given their shared cause, similar urgency, and methods of resolution (monitoring, landscaping, and earth works).
The Welsh Government must mandate public consultation for all stages of the restoration process, including when revised restoration plans are brought forward.
Public participation is very important at all stages of the planning process and is to be encouraged. The wide range of development types and scales mean planning legislation can only set a minimum standard of consultation…however we expect planning authorities to consult where the public is materially affected by the submitted details.
A restoration plan represents a promise made to nearby communities before they endure what is often years of disruption, noise, and dust during subsequent coal mining. Accordingly, those communities should be meaningfully consulted on proposed changes to that promise, with their feedback given significant weight in shaping associated planning decisions and conditions. We ask if the Welsh Government will issue guidance to Local Planning Authorities to this effect, to act on its acceptance in principle of the CCEIC’s recommendation.
The Welsh Government should advise local authorities to designate a specific officer as a point of contact for the local community, providing a direct communication channel between residents and local authorities on matters relating to sites or similar developments.
MTAN2 recommends the mining company appoints a site liaison officer. Additionally, Local Planning Authorities have a Planning Case Officer before an application is approved, and the enforcement team for after an application is approved.
Within Local Planning Authorities, Case Officers often say they are too busy with their main work to engage more with public enquiries and concerns. Given the potential impact of planning applications on nearby communities, there’s clearly a need to have a dedicated contact point for community input and involvement. We ask if the Welsh Government will issue guidance to Local Planning Authorities to this effect, to act on its acceptance in principle of the CCEIC’s recommendation.
The Welsh Government should advise local authorities to create online portals where residents can access up-to-date information on all stages of the restoration process.
Insisting on specific web publishing requirements at this time is premature. The Welsh Government is working with the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) in exploring how digital solutions can improve the planning system in Wales. It is anticipated that the communication of decisions will form an integral part of that work. This will bring together the variability currently seen across authorities in a managed cost-effective way.
The Welsh Government should expedite online public access to planning documents, and have facilitating public engagement as an explicit aim of this work. The poor design of some planning portals currently create barriers to community members accessing critical information about developments that will potentially impact them. We ask the Welsh Government to centre a public consultation in its design of digitalised planning systems.
The Welsh Government should encourage the use of citizens' assemblies as forums for discussing the future of restoration sites, particularly where restoration failed to meet the original planning permission and compromises need to be made.
National planning guidance already recognises that well established liaison committees help to provide a better understanding of the impacts to be expected from mineral extraction. Many quarries and coal sites have established liaison committees which act as a forum for regular discussion and explanation of current problems. Where regular complaints are received or there is concern about local impacts the local planning authority should request that the operator cooperate in establishing regular meetings of a nominated group.
We agree with the National Planning guidance’s promotion of community liaison committees, but find execution is inconsistent, and in some cases, absent altogether – even where there are serious breaches of planning control and trust. This has left some participating residents we’ve spoken with feeling ignored and apathetic. We ask if the Welsh Government will reconsider the sentiment of the CCEIC’s recommendation, by strengthening the National Planning guidance on community liaison committees.
The Welsh Government must explore stronger enforcement mechanisms to address breaches of planning controls without delay, such as the mining activities that continued at Ffos-y-Fran after the licence expired.
The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 provides a range of effective enforcement options depending on the circumstances. Enforcement is focused on addressing the unacceptable impacts of unauthorised development rather than punishing the developer. Given the complex nature of planning impacts on both the environment and people it is sometimes acceptable to allow unauthorised activities to continue while consideration is given to the best course of action. That is what Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council concluded at Ffos-y-Fran. However, where unacceptable harm is happening, the law does currently provide authorities with powers to stop activities immediately, either through a stop notice or Court injunction.
Ffos-y-fran highlights that enforcement options are only robust to the extent that they can be implemented. For 15 months, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council believed the consequences of using enforcement options available to it were worse than allowing severe, long-term, harmful, and persistent breaches of planning control. This suggests that current enforcement options are not fit for purpose. Therefore we ask if the Welsh Government will reconsider the CCEIC’s recommendation and review existing planning enforcement options for their practical effectiveness in controlling largescale developments?
The Welsh Government should consider the broader implications of the failures at Ffos-y-Fran and implement systemic changes to prevent similar issues in future, including in relation to coal-tip reclamation sites.
Welsh Government coal extraction planning policy is clear that development proposals will only be approved in wholly exceptional circumstances. There will therefore be very few schemes being brought forward. At the present time, our primary focus is to ensure that disused tips are safe and to deliver a modernised, fit-for-purpose regulatory regime.
In the face of the Welsh Government’s expectation of ‘very few schemes’, there are currently two schemes in pre-application consultation (Bedwas Tips and an extension to Glan Lash) proposing coal extraction in South Wales, with remediation dimensions. Ffos-y-fran is a current example of the abject failure of planning control to secure the agreed restoration, even after allowing 15 months of illegal coal mining with an associated 1.6 million tonnes of CO2. Ffos-y-fran is not a lone example, but rather part of a history of planning control failing to deliver the agreed standard of restoration at East Pit, Selar, Margam Parc Slip, and Nant Helen within the past decade alone in South Wales. If the Welsh Government refuses to learn lessons from this egregious breach of its own national policy on coal mining, it calls into question whether the Welsh Government gives the CCEIC’s findings the gravitas they clearly merit. Such a refusal also risks the repeat of mistakes that led to avoidable harm to surrounding communities, the local environment and restoration liability, our shared climate, planning control, trust in the Local Planning Authority, and Wales’s reputation as a climate leader. We ask the Welsh Government to reconsider the relevance and urgency of reviewing the broader implications of the failures at Ffos-y-Fran and implement systemic changes to prevent similar issues in future, in-line with the CCEIC’s recommendation.
In the event that the water cannot be drained from the, voids at the site, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council must ensure that any, water bodies resulting from the restoration at Ffos-y-Fran are safe and provide, benefit to the local community.
Accepting this recommendation with no further comment will not reassure local communities, particularly given the lack of consultation to date, and unsafe conditions documented around the flooded voids at similar sites of Margam/Parc Slip and East Pit former opencast coal mines.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council must ensure, that the revised restoration plan reflects, as a minimum, the objectives of the, original restoration plan, including: safe public access across the East Merthyr, historic landscape with a new network of trails and footpaths; sustainable, wildlife habitats and biodiverse environmental sites; protection and restoration, of surviving heritage features; and the return of most of the site for traditional, commoners’ use.
Any revised scheme would inevitably differ in that overburden mounds 2 and 3 are, likely to be retained and a body of water will be incorporated into the scheme. The developer has also, indicated that they would wish to retain the motorcross facility.
Allowing the void to flood and letting the site operator leave its colossal coal tips (overburden mounds) above ground amounts to an abandonment of the original restoration objectives promised to local communities. As with MTCBC’s refusal to issue a Stop Notice to prevent the daily illegal mining of over 1,000 tonnes of coal, allowing a noisy motocross to be atop one of those coal tips that operated during this period of unregulated illegal activity, would be seen as another betrayal of local communities to the benefit of the mining company.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council should fully, involve local residents in the consideration of revised restoration plans for the, Ffos-y-Fran site.
We are disappointed at this glib and non-committal comment and invite MTCBC to properly respond to the CCEIC’s recommendation 24.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council should publish, the application for the revised restoration plan at Ffos-y-Fran and the planning, officer’s associated reports
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council:
Response: Noted
Our analysis:
We are disappointed at this glib and non-committal comment and invite MTCBC to properly respond to the CCEIC’s recommendation 25.
