Plaid Cymru Senedd Member Lindsay Whittle has raised safety concerns over plans to extract coal from the Bedwas Tips, an operation that could go on for seven years, during a debate at the Senedd.
The MS for Caerphilly was speaking at the Senedd about his concerns over proposals by reclamation company Energy Recovery Investments Ltd (ERI) to dig out almost 500,000 tonnes of usable coal and landscape the tips.
A total of £230m is currently being set aside for tip remediation in Wales but that will only cover a fraction of the 2,500 coal tips in Wales. Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies also announced that a Disused Tips Authority for Wales would be based in Merthyr Tydfil.
Referring to the possible mining scheme at Bedwas, Lindsay Whittle said: “ It’s not a case of planning policy, it is a matter of daily anxiety. I am living in the mining village of Abertridwr. My family is steeped in the history of coal. My great grandfather was killed in the (Universal Colliery, Senghenydd) mining disaster and a second cousin lost his life at the Windsor Colliery, Abertridwr.
“I had a colliery waste tip at the very bottom of my garden but it has now been landscaped and there is a school and housing there.”
He went on: “The current plan for Bedwas colliery is not a safety plan. Bedwas closed after the 1984 mining strike. It never reopened. What’s happening there I believe is mining by stealth and communities on either side of Bedwas mountain are living in fear and that can’t be right.”
He urged the Deputy First Minister to ensure that government policy protected communities against the Bedwas proposals and “prevented extraction under the guise of remediation”.
”That is what frightens me. Will you ensure that remediation always means public safety, not private profit and join in and ensure the UK government meets its full financial obligation to the people of Wales,?” he asked the Deputy First Minister.”
After the meeting, Lindsay Whittle said: “The safety of the tip must be paramount in all discussions and that is non-negotiable. It has to be top priority.”
“If any coal has to be recovered then the waste has to go away by rail and lorries rerouted along the top of the mountain and down to the line and , definitely not through Bedwas, Trethomas and Machen, nor Wattsville and Cwmfelinfach and Ynysddu.”