Yorkshire's Kellingley Colliery to Close

One of Yorkshire's remaining pits is shutting. The Government's confirmed it won't provide £338 million needed to keep Kellingley colliery in North Yorkshire and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire open. It means that from next year Hatfield in South Yorkshire will be Britain's only remaining deep mine but there are fears it won't be able to survive as a stand-alone. 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 Chris Kitchen, from the National Union of Mineworkers, thinks that might mean Kellingley shuts sooner rather than later with the miners having little incentive to stay on. He's told Radio Aire: "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."