From the Valleys to the Beaches, New Coal Mines Bring Fear not Hope

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In 2015, the UK government promised to phase out coal power. In April this year, the country had its first coal power-free day since the industrial revolution. Last month, climate minister Claire Perry stood with 20 of her international counterparts and promised to โ€œpower pastย coalโ€.

The British coal industry is dead, isnโ€™tย it?

In the UK, there is the impression that the streams of miners leaving the pits like grubby-faced lords of the underworld are a thing of the past. That the pickets, police, projectiles and โ€” ultimately โ€” poverty, are the stuff of history textbooks. And that the trucks, noise, dust, and heaps of blackened spoil exist only inย isolated pockets of the isleโ€ฆ and not for muchย longer.

Yet, in two communites hundreds of miles apart, residents are confronted with a very differentย picture.

In Walesโ€™ lush green valleys, there is electrician Eddy Blanche, telling me how heโ€™s given his all in a fight to save his granddaughterโ€™s future. There is hometown oldboy Roy Thomas, carefully photographing all the rubble, mudslides, and other miscellaneous fallout from the huge open hole next to his home. And there is Isobel Tarr and her campaigner colleagues, offering a helping hand, trying to think of new ways to make this industry stop.ย Now.

Then, a six-hour drive to the North East on a beautiful stretch of Northumbrian coast, there is craft worker Lynne Tate, walking her dogs on the beach every day, before poring over the details of a traffic survey back home. There is Rob Noyes, recently graduated and working full-time now as an environmental coordinator, still raging from his student days at the hypocrisy of companies stuck in the past. And Andrew Stark, up for Uni, wondering why the concerns of his generation continue to beย ignored.

The two groups have never met, but they have one thing binding them: opencast coal mining. As far as they are concerned, coal is alive and kicking โ€”ย hard.

From the Valleys to theย Beaches

The UKโ€™s largest opencast coal mine is at Ffos-y-Fran, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. The mine was granted planning permission in 2005, and has since extracted almost eight million tonnes of coal. The company says it expects to extract around three million tonnes more over the mineโ€™s lifetime. It used to supplyย the nearby Aberthaw power station, but EU emissions regulations means the stationย now must burn less toxic coal imported from Russia andย Australia.

Nonetheless, Miller Argent, Ffos-y-Fran’s owner and operator, wants to extend theย mine.

The Nant Llesg extension would allow the company to extract another six million tonnes of coal from the site, the company claims. The UK used a total ofย 12 million tonnes of coal for powerย inย 2016.

Miller Argent gets to the coal by using large machinery to effectively scrape the coal out of the land. The industry calls this surface mining, in contrast to pit mining of old. Itโ€™s also known as opencast mining, due to the topographical transformation itย creates.

Caerphilly council rejected Miller Argentโ€™s plans for the Nant Llesg extension in August 2015. The company put in an appeal before Christmas the same year. The project remains inย limbo.


Credit: Eddyย Blanche


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0

Its ultimate fate could be significantly affected by an upcoming report from the UKโ€™s planning inspectorate on a proposed mine 350 milesย away.

On an unspoilt stretch of Northumberlandโ€™s coast lies Druridge Bay, about half an hourโ€™s drive from Newcastle and slightly less in the same direction from the vast Shotton coalย mine.

Banks Mining, the local operator that runs the Shotton mine, has applied for planning permission to open a new mine at Highthorn, sandwiched between two nature reserves, right next to theย bay.

Look east from the dunes and youโ€™ll see the sea. Look west, and soon you could see machinery hacking away at the earth, the company hopes. The expectation would be for most of the coal to be sent to local power plants, with some put on the exportย market.

The planning inspectorate is due to give a report containing recommendations on whether the Druridge Bay plan should proceed to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid by December 4. Javid then has three months to make a final decision on the Druridge Bayย project.

So while both projects are stalled, both could still be given a greenย light.

Until that point, plans for new coal mines in the UK remain in stasis โ€” waiting to see if the government is ready to follow through on its climateย commitments.

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Beyondย Climate

Javid originally โ€˜called-inโ€™ the Druridge Bay project, asking the planning inspectorate to do a full report, because he wanted to know if or how it would fit with the governmentโ€™s wider climate and coal phase-outย policies.

While that makes the case unique in one sense, the objections raised by a motley cast of committed campaigners spanning the country go well beyondย this.

There are some familiarย themes.

Opencast coal mining destroys the landscape in which it is situated. And when you live in the Welsh valleys, or next to a stretch of unspoilt beach that acts as a haven for humans and wildlife alike, this is aย problem.

The lifetime of the mines varies greatly depending on how much coal there is, how much companies can sell it for, and how government policies affect demand. Banks Mining claims the Druridge Bay project would operate for around seven years, while production at Ffos-Y-Fran isn’t scheduled to end until 2022. The longevity of the projects means manyย residents are concened not just about the mines’ impacts, but the amount of time they and their families might have to live withย them.ย 

Eddy Blanche is acutely aware of the proposed longevity of the Nant Llesg extension. He toldย me:

โ€œMy granddaughter is now eight.ย I think she was just born when we started fighting this. By the time theyโ€™ve so-called restored that land, sheโ€™s going to have finished university for christโ€™s sake. Itโ€™s not a five minute scheme, itโ€™s like 20ย years.โ€


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0

โ€œI live in a beautiful valley. I live in beautiful area,โ€ Blancheย enthused.

โ€œI come from London. I was born and bred in Dagenham surrounded by concrete. Iโ€™ve lived in the village for 10 years, and I still drive across the Common and every now and again have to pull over and take in the view because it changes everyย day.

โ€œThe cloud coverโ€™s different, the light is different, the sheep are out, the horses are out, the lambs are in the field, the cows are wandering about. And I still sit there, 10 years later, I still stop on the common and go, โ€˜you know, mother nature at herย finestโ€™.โ€

He thinks that Miller Argent simply โ€œdonโ€™t give a shit about the environmentโ€, and is convinced the new mine would do irreparable damage to the areaโ€™s beautifulย countryside.

Lynne Tate described Druridge Bay, a five minute drive from her house, in similarly romanticย terms:

โ€œYou get school trips and things in the summer, and you get people having the bucket-and-spade holiday. And thereโ€™s an ice cream shop and craft stall and the cafe, and people will come along with their kids andย everything.โ€

โ€œI go down to Druridge Bay every single day unless Iโ€™m on holidays, so itโ€™s 52 weeks of the year Iโ€™m down there, and thereโ€™s so many other people who do the same as me โ€” you see the same ones at the same times, and if you go at a different time you see totally different people walking their dogs orย walking.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s people who like to come here for the peace and quiet and theย tranquility.โ€

Rob Noyes, a former Newcastle University student, who joined Tate and others in the local community as part of the Save Druridge campaign, told me that putting an opencast coal mine in such a spot would mean โ€œtaking away something that really is an oasis of open space and freedom; for children playing, for families walkingย aroundโ€.

โ€œItโ€™s just a beautiful spot. And the idea that you would want to mine anything there struck me as justย wrong.โ€

He said that if the Druridge Bay mine is approved, heโ€™d take inspiration from activists across the country, such as those resisting Cuadrillaโ€™s fracking activity in Lancashire, to try and prevent the project goingย ahead.


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0

And itโ€™s not just todayโ€™s residents theyโ€™re fighting for. Time and again, the hours they each spent trying to express the absurdity of planting new opencast coal mines on their doorsteps was justified through reference to futureย generations.

Blanche has a particularly emotional attachment to what the lush valleys around Merthyr mean for hisย family.

โ€œIโ€™ve had a new granddaughter born three weeks ago โ€” when she gets to 10, and walks up on that common, sheโ€™s either going to see an opencast mine or sheโ€™s going to see a beautiful green field. If she sees a beautiful green field, I can say to her โ€˜this is here because grandad helped protect it. Grandad helped to keep it there 10 years ago before you was born. Grandad was fighting to protectย this.โ€™

โ€œIf itโ€™s an opencast mine and she says โ€˜Grandad, why is this place all black, why didnโ€™t you do anything about it?โ€™, I can honestly look her in the eye and say โ€˜I tried toโ€™. If youโ€™re not going to do it for yourself, do it for your children, do it for your grandchildren.โ€ย ย 

Tate is similarly resolute. She canโ€™t understand why companies, the government, and local councils wonโ€™t learn from pastย mistakes:

โ€œItโ€™s very important for our children and grandchildren that we stop digging for coal now. We know whatโ€™s happened in the past โ€” it was black gold back then. We thought then that this was one of the greatest finds and we had all this fuel toย burn.

โ€œBut now we know the damage that it causes. And it causes it not just in relation to the CO2 gas but also to getting it out of the ground and spoiling it for the community and tourism and theย wildlife.โ€

And then thereโ€™s Andrew Stark, a fresh-faced politics student angry that, once again, his generation may be about to be stitched-up by those that wonโ€™t be around to suffer theย consequences:

โ€œAs a young person, I feel our generation has been handed quite a bad deal. This isnโ€™t really something that is going to affect the developers that are older than us in their lifetime. Itโ€™s going to affect my generation in our lifetimes, and my kidsโ€™ and grandkidsโ€™ futures. So itโ€™s important to just stand our ground and say, โ€˜we donโ€™t want our future to beย ruinedโ€™.โ€

Deaf toย Democracy

This indignation, this sense that the will of the people is being ignored, extends to the institutions that are meant to represent their communities and the companies trying to muscle in on theirย turf.

Isobel Tarr, a campaigner with the Coal Action network, which has spent a lot of time with local residents around the Welsh valleys fighting to hold coal companies to account, said that in many cases companies are akin to โ€œa really bad neighbourโ€ that just โ€œshow up and treat them disrespectfully forย yearsโ€.

โ€œLocal people have told us that they have tried again and again to use the institutional channels โ€” through their local councils, through their democratic representatives in the Welsh assembly and appealing to the UK government โ€” to try and protest this mine. Theyโ€™ve been to the planning application enquiries, theyโ€™ve been lodging objections through the planning system, and have found again and again that their objections have beenย ignored.

โ€œSo people are very frustrated with the lack of democratic process that has gone into deciding that this mine should exist on theirย doorstep.โ€

Noyes was similarly motivated to try and hold Banks Mining and the Northumberland authorities, that have so far waved-through the plans, toย account:

โ€œIn Druridge Bay, itโ€™s just a drastic overhaul of any form of localย democracy.โ€

โ€œItโ€™s just unfair. It just struck me as totally wrong that an area with some of the highest levels of air pollution in the country, and some of the lowest levels of economic growth in the country would then have a coal mine struck on it with 50 short term jobs being used as the prime argument for bringing 300 HGVs to the area perย day.โ€

Coal mining jobs across the UK are in steady decline. The industry employed around 1,146ย people in 2016, according to figures first reportedย by DeSmog UK. That had fallen to justย 644 people by Septemberย 2017.

And how have the companies treated those that already live with the noise, dust, dirt and disruption that the mines bring? According to Roy Thomas, who can see the existing Ffos-y-Fran mine from his driveway: โ€œWeโ€™ve had nothing at all. Onlyย arguments.โ€

Thomas spent an afternoon giving a tour of the Ffos-y-Fran mine. His family has lived in the same house for generations, and Thomas can point out every landscape change, every possibly unstable pile of rubble, every flood or mudslideย hazard.

Pointing to the rubble discarded in huge mounds as the mining progresses, he showed me how โ€œitโ€™s just gone up and up andย upโ€.

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Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0


Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BYSAย 2.0

Thomas has meticulously photographed and documented hundreds of problems that he claims to have experienced from the existing mine โ€” from cracks in his house he says are from blasting, to overflowing ponds and outlets when the mine floods. He has created an astonishing physicalย archive.

โ€œIt was cruel what we went throughโ€, he told me. Miller Argent has โ€œno regards for anyone livingย hereโ€.

Despite his efforts, he says complaints fallย on deaf ears. The company responds with โ€œweโ€™re sorry blah blah blah, but they donโ€™t do anything about itโ€, heย said.

So what does he recommend those at Druridge Bay do, to ensure they don’t get a similarly rawย deal?ย 

โ€œIโ€™d have every photo and every letter on aย boardโ€.

โ€œShow them what this mine hasย done.โ€

But even if the companies pass on part of their profits โ€” as both Miller Argent and Banks Mining do through community benefit funds โ€” none of the residents are convinced the compensation would beย sufficient.

Blanche is particularly sceptical about what in his view is little more than an effort to buy-off theย community:

โ€œThey want to dig up Nant Llesg to line somebodyโ€™s pocket โ€” because thatโ€™s what itโ€™s about, the truth of the matter is simple. They talk about the community fund, or the compensation scheme as I like to call it, and how theyโ€™re going to give so many millions to the community, and how theyโ€™re going to create 270 jobs for the local community.ย Thatโ€™s not what theyโ€™re doing itย for.โ€

Neither Miller Argent or Banks Mining responded to a request to comment for thisย story.

Keep it in theย Ground

So the UKโ€™s coal mining industry is not dead. Not yet atย least.

Guy Shrubsole, climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth, which supported the Save Druridge campaign, thinks the Communities’ Secretary’s decisionย could be a watershed moment for the UKโ€™s efforts to move away from fossilย fuels.

โ€œI think this really gets to the crux of the phrase โ€˜keep it in the groundโ€™. If we want to keep the fossil fuels in the ground that we canโ€™t afford to burn, then that really has to start biting in countries like the UK โ€” and particularly on fossil fuels like coal โ€”ย now.โ€

He points to scientific evidence that suggests 80 percent of known coal reserves need to be left in the ground if countries are going to prevent temperatures rising more than two degrees above pre-industrialย levels.

And there is little evidence to suggest the public want to see a resurgence for the worldโ€™s dirtiestย fuel.

A recent poll, albeit for a pro-nuclear power lobby group, found only four percent of the public actively supported the use of coal power. In contrast, the governmentโ€™s own polling consistently shows around 80 percent of respondents support the use of renewable technologies such as wind and solar to generateย power.

This potentially creates the political space for the government to denounce its support for the fossil fuel industry and reaffirm its commitment to action on climate change, Shrubsoleย argued.

โ€œThis obviously has to stop and this has to stop now. And Druridge Bay could be this fantastic opportunity for the secretary of state to say โ€˜no, thatโ€™s it, weโ€™ve had enough. Weโ€™re phasing out coal power stations, and weโ€™re going to end coal extractionย tooโ€™.โ€

โ€œWe have to stop giving consent to new coalย mines.โ€

If Javid does reject the plans, the shockwaves will be felt beyond the UK. And the campaigners know that. Blanche knowsย that:

โ€œFrom my involvement with [the campaign], you start realising that itโ€™s not just about my little corner of the community. The problem weโ€™ve got with burning fossil fuels is a global issue that needs to be stopped. Something needs to be done aboutย it.โ€


Credit: Coal Actionย Network


Credit: Coal Actionย Network

Main image credit: Eddyย Blanche

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Mat was DeSmog's Special Projects and Investigations Editor, and Operations Director of DeSmog UK Ltd. He was DeSmog UKโ€™s Editor from October 2017 to March 2021, having previously been an editor at Nature Climate Change and analyst at Carbon Brief.

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