Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences

Steve Witherden Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Steve Witherden (Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg.

I thank the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) for securing this important debate to ensure that the Government’s proposed ban on new coal licences stays true to its legislative aim, while putting the safety of our constituents over profit-making opportunities for private sector companies.

At present, the Government’s planned coal licence ban does not definitively include coal tips, which means that there is a real possibility that private companies could apply to mine for commercial gain even after the ban is in place. Wales is home to more than half all the coal tips in the United Kingdom—2,590 out of 5,000. Therefore, any legal ambiguity would raise concerns for my constituents, especially those living near the Bersham colliery in Rhostyllen, in my constituency—the final coalmine to close in north Wales, in 1986—and no doubt among those of many colleagues here today.

Contained in these tips are tens of millions of tonnes of coal. They are increasingly a real and present public safety risk. Landslides, leaching and pollution are all growing threats, made worse by extreme weather and heavy rainfall, which climate change is making more frequent. Extracting that coal would only make the situation worse, hence the need for coal tip safety measures that exclude coal extraction for commercial purposes.

In Wales, we know all too well the danger that coal tips can pose. We carry the memory of Aberfan—the tragic disaster of 1966, in which 116 children, mostly between the ages of seven and 10, along with 28 adults, lost their lives when a coal tip collapsed on their school. It happened on the last day before half-term. Yesterday was 59 years since it happened. The devastation of the grief still hangs heavy in our national memory. We must honour that memory by ensuring that such a tragedy can never happen again.

In 2020 in Tylorstown, following Storm Dennis, we saw 60,000 tonnes of spoil collapse from a former tip; and just last year in Cwmtillery, 40 homes had to be evacuated after a similar event. Those are stark warnings.

Mining companies offering to remove coal tips in return for commercial access to coal is an easy answer to a difficult question, which we cannot allow, so I ask the Minister this. If the Government truly believe that the Welsh Government’s coal policy and England’s and Scotland’s planning policies are robust enough to prevent coal extraction, why do investors think otherwise? ERI Reclamation is actively seeking to extract 468,000 tonnes of coal from tips in Bedwas, Caerphilly. It clearly believes that the law allows that, and it is putting serious capital behind the belief. If this is approved—it is an “if”—it could set a dangerous precedent, whereby private profits determine which coal tips are removed and others, with less content, are left. It would be a precedent categorising coal tips by their value rather than their potential impact on public safety. Could we see landowners, burdened by maintenance costs, encouraged to sell access to these sites?

We cannot and must not rely on the private sector to make coal tips safe. That duty falls on us. The Government’s coal licensing ban must be strengthened to include coal tip mining. The short-term and long-term safety and welfare of our communities must come first. Diolch yn fawr, Mr Twigg.