Fears over South Yorkshire Coal Mine's Future

From next year Hatfield colliery in South Yorkshire will be Britain's only remaining deep mine. It's after two pits, including Kellingley in North Yorkshire, are going to be shut. The Government's confirmed it won't provide £338 million needed to keep that one and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire open. But there are fears Hatfield won't be able to survive as a stand-alone. Chris Kitchen, from the National Union of Mineworkers has told Hallam: "Hatfield can't survive on its own and unfortunately the Government once again has offered a loan to close Hatfield. Hatfield will be facing closure by Spring 2016. Then we'll have no producing deep pit coal mines in the UK even though we are reliant on coal to keep the lights on." Next month 205 workers, the first batch at Kellingley, will be given their notice. The rest will get letters later in the year. Business minister Matthew Hancock said committing public sector funding on the scale necessary to extend UK Coal's closure plan by three years was not affordable and did not represent value for money to the taxpayer. He said:

"The £338 million requested approximates to a cost of more than £75,000 per UK Coal employee per year over the three-year closure plan." The minister added that the Government was prepared to provide additional funding to keep the closure plan on track. UK Coal has asked for an extra £10 million so the closures can go ahead this year. Mr Hancock said:

"I can confirm that the Government is willing in principle to provide additional support to help deliver the plan, subject to conditions including state aid approval and appropriate support from other stakeholders. "We are working with the company to determine the amount, timing and form this additional assistance could take.'' But the NUM's General Secretary, Chris Kitchen, thinks that might mean Kellingley shuts sooner rather than later with the miners having little incentive to stay on: "If they see this as there is now no hope the mine is going to close - you're going to have an empasis turning from keeping the pit open and coming to work and doing the job that their paid to do, to do what's the best for the miner and their families.

"That might not be staying in the mine until the end. Unfortunately within coal mining you have got key skills that you can't operate a mine without."