PAID IN FULL, PAID IN BLOOD...

When in comes to mining, the people of Wales (and elsewhere) can be said to have paid in full and paid in blood. Coal owners and redevelopers promises can be said to be cheap e.g. I will still respect you in the morning, there are 6,000 jobs related to this development, we will restore the landscape after the open coal mining is finished, etc. That said in both Wales and Scotland (and no doubt other former coal mining areas) the promises in relation to afterwards were no doubt laid on thick.

The actions of a judge who in relation to the responsibility for clearing up afterwards should alarm those communities who are living with on-going open cast coal minin operations or like the residents of north Torfaen have potentially this experience yet to come. The case, which revolved around the collapse of a fraud case also indirectly relates to whether or not a mining firm should accept moral responsibility for restoring two opencast sites.

The Serious Fraud Office had accused six people, including two former directors of the firm, of trying to avoid paying the restoration costs. Celtic Energy transferred ownership of mines at Margam, near Port Talbot, and East Pit in Amman Valley to a firm in the Caribbean. Basically the Judge ruled nothing unlawful had taken place and an attempt to re-open the case back in October failed. When coal extraction ceases companies are obliged to restore opencast sites.

The cost of reinstating the two Welsh sites has been estimated to be around £150m, but less than £10m has been set aside so far. The owner, Oak Regeneration, which just happens to be listed in the British Virgin Islands, says it cannot meet the restoration costs and Neath Port Talbot (NPT) council said it understands the company would go into liquidation if it tried to force payment.

Restoration, after years or noise and pollution, is often linked to questionable post coal extraction developments. Certainly Oak Regeneration has plans on both sites, which include housing at Margam and a hotel at East Pit. As elsewhere, both plans relate to yet more mining, something which has provoked strong local opposition in the past.

Now, none of this should be news - taxpayers (in Scotland) may also be left to carry the can as they may have to cover as much as £62m pounds to restore opencast mines in East Ayrshire should make more than a few people sit up and think. An East Ayrshire Council report written after the collapse of Scottish Coal and Aardvark (TMC) reported that there was not enough money set aside to pay for remedial work to restore the mining sites.

Restoration bonds put up in place to pay for the post open cast mining clear were revealed to be significantly less than the projected cost of the restoration work.Coal Action Scotland campaigners are understandably angered and have accused the council of basically failing to enforce and monitor its own rules. After the financial collapse of both companies, liquidators from KPMG were appointed at Scottish Coal in April and at Aardvark in May.

Aside from lost local jobs, East Ayrshire Council have been examining who will have to pay for cleaning up various opencast sites which were previously operated by the open cast coal mining firms. A report to the council's cabinet in May stated that KPMG estimated that total restoration costs for the East Ayrshire sites were "in the region of £48m to £90m".

The East Ayrshire Council council report noted that the potential value of restoration bonds, which are effectively insurance policies for cleaning up the mines after mining has ceased, were worth around £ 16.1 million pounds for Scottish sites and £ 11.52 million pounds for Aardvark sites. 

Back in 2013 the world market for coal was being flooded by cheap US coal as a knock on effect of the collapse of US gas prices due to fracking. Quite how coal prices will fare in a time (however temporary) when oil prices are crashing is as yet an unknown. When it comes to open cast mining and the post mining clear up operations, the time is long overdue for serious questions to be asked of the pen cast mining companies and their promises.

PROMISES

East Ayrshire Council: left looking at a large hole in the ground?

It can be said that promises are cheap e.g. I will still respect you in the morning, there are 6,000 jobs related to this development, etc. That said the news that that taxpayers (in Scotland) could be left to pay a bill of as much as £62m pounds to restore opencast mines in East Ayrshire should make more than a few people sit up and think. An East Ayrshire Council report which has followed the collapse of Scottish Coal and Aardvark (TMC) reports that there is not enough money set aside to pay for remedial work to restore the mining sites. Bonds put up in place to pay for the post open cast mining clear up have been revealed to significantly less than the projected cost of the restoration work. Coal Action Scotland campaigners are understandably angered and have accused the council of basically failing to enforce and monitor its own rules. After the financial collapse of both companies, liquidators from KPMG were appointed at Scottish Coal in April and at Aardvark in May. Aside from the job losses, East Ayrshire Council have been examining who will have to pay for cleaning up various opencast sites which were previously operated by the open cast coal mining firms. A report to the council's cabinet in May stated that KPMG estimated that total restoration costs for the East Ayrshire sites were "in the region of £48m to £90m". The report noted that the potential value of restoration bonds, which are effectively insurance policies for cleaning up the mines after mining has ceased, were worth around £ 16.1 million pounds for Scottish sites and £ 11.52 million pounds for Aardvark sites. With the world market being flooded by cheap US coal as knock on effect of the collapse of US gas prices due to fracking perhaps it is time for some of our politicians in those areas with existing (and potential) open cast coal mines to start asking some questions? 

NO MORE BROKEN PROMISES

Driver training on the Gaer spur (Photo: Ian Brewer)

News that the bus link from the Ebbw Valley railway line to Newport city centre will be extended by two months is of some significance. The bus service was launched in January 2012 and initially was due to run for a year as a pilot. The Welsh Government has agreed an extension to the service that runs between Rogerstone and Newport railway stations until March 31st.

There have been loud persistent calls (for the best part of ten years) for the completion of the long promised permanent rail link from the Ebbw Vale into the City but no concrete action.  The bus service, run by Stagecoach which is timed to connect with trains from Rogerstone, was funded for its initial year at a cost of £119,000 by the Welsh Government. Between January and July 2012 barley 700 people had used the service (South Wales Argus).

It’s time for the Welsh Government to commit resources to completing the final link into Newport something that would benefit a wider area as services could be run off peak between Abergavenny and Ebbw Vale, servicing the valley lines into Newport. What concerns me is that the token gesture bus service may be designed to fail, no enough people use it, something that the Labour in Wales Government in Cardiff may use as evidence to suggest that there is no demand for the service. I have real concerns that the electrification (something that is long overdue in my opinion) of the Great Western Line between Swansea and London may also be used as an excuse for inaction. There has been enough talk, the time for excuses is passed, its time to get the job done, once and for all.

EMPTY PROMISES

When it comes to one of the old imagined rules of the political game, never to promise what you have no intention of delivering save to try an gain votes, the three main London based parties stand guilty as charged. Particularly when it comes to energy, all three of them pledged to raise the MW threshold for planning control of energy projects in Wales to varying degrees, yet all have done next to nothing to try to deliver.

Back in April, much was promised, including:

Welsh Conservative Manifesto 2011:

“[Will] continue to make the case for devolving power over energy projects up to 100 MW.”

Welsh Labour Manifesto 2011:

“Continue to seek responsibility for renewable energy consents up to 100MW on both sea and land, enabling Wales to move quicker in providing clean energy solutions for all.”

Welsh Lib Dems Manifesto 2011:

“We will also examine whether new areas of responsibility, such as powers regarding policing or large-scale energy generation can deliver improved results for the people of Wales. Specifically, we will make the case for powers over larger energy projects and policing and justice.”

Promises are clearly one thing, clearly actions another, recently the Con Dem Government energy minister Greg Barker announced that the coalition government would reserve these powers in Westminster, so much for manifesto promises made by the UK coalition parties to the Welsh electorate. This means that the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will take control of energy powers currently held by the shortly to be disbanded Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), so much for democratic accountability.

In the last Welsh General election, the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems all made the case for further devolution of energy powers, yet these were mere empty promises. The local Welsh franchise of the London based Lib Dems and Tories from Wales have been shown to have zero influence on their masters in London, just like Labour in Wales during the Blair and Brown years.

At the moment the National Assembly has the power to control or give permission for new or increased electricity generating stations up to 50MW. This arbitrary limit has been imposed on Wales for no particular reason; oddly enough the Scottish people have complete control over the utilisation of their resources. At the moment there are two separate energy agendas operating in Wales. Why should an energy project with 49MW generating capacity be decided on by the Assembly one over 51MW by the Secretary of State in Westminster?

Now Plaid rightly opposed the creation of the IPC because it was undemocratic when was brought in as part of New Labour’s 2008 Planning Act. And Plaid also rightly welcomed the decision to pull the plug on it, but understandably not the lack of clarity as to where those powers should sit?

There is no justification for denying the Welsh people parity with Scotland when it comes to control of the planning process for energy developments. The bottom line is that control of natural resources and energy policy should be devolved to Wales for reasons of simple common sense and simple practicality, or perhaps as far as the London based parties are concerned Wales simply does not matter or count.

TIME TO DELIVER ON THE PROMISES

Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader and defence spokesperson, Elfyn Llwyd MP, is right to warn that the UK government must undertake radical steps to help the rising numbers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sufferers. The UK Government has taken its time in responding to the needs of our veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan - a number of whom are suffering from PTSD.

The Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, promised today to provide a 24-hour helpline and an additional 30 mental health nurses for veterans and serving soldiers. This is a step in the right direction but far bolder action needs to be undertaken to support our veterans and our serving service personnel and their families, who were promised help by New Labour, who failed to deliver.

Plaid's Elfyn Llwyd has long been at the forefront of a campaign for greater support for veterans of the Armed Forces and recently travelled to the United States as part of a delegation sponsored by the Howard League for Penal Reform to research the issue of why so many ex-servicemen and women end up in prison.

Plaid's Elfyn Llwyd MP said:

“This is an issue I have long campaigned for and I am extremely glad that the UK government has finally realised what a critical problem we face with veterans welfare. It is a crying shame that more is not done to support our young men and women when they leave the forces – particularly when we ask so much of them in going to war. PTSD is a problem that can take years, sometimes decades, to surface. We need to ensure that support is on offer whenever a veteran needs that support – not just immediately prior to leaving the forces. No doubt we have yet to witness the true scale of the mental health fall-out that will come in the wake of Iraq and Afghanistan. While I'm glad that steps are being taken, there is a certain 'de ja vu' in this announcement as it seems to be a re-hash of promises made by the last government.

Will this government really commit itself to tackling this ever increasing problem? We need to improve mental health screening of personnel when they sign up as well as developing a holistic and thorough support structure available for every veteran when they leave the forces. I have argued that there should be a thorough and separate review into resources spent on veterans – similar to the Defence review, that way would we would be closer to recognising where exactly, and how much, resources would be needed to begin targeting the problem. A structure needs to be in place to provide support and advice on accommodation, career advice and debt management as well as health and mental health issues, to target the social isolation experienced by many veterans.Only through developing a thorough support network will we be able to tackle the scandalous number of veterans who end up in the criminal justice system and in the homeless population.”

Sadly it should come as no real surprise to even the most impartial observer (or not) that UK Government's have a tendency to treat former (and serving) service personnel badly. On occasion you may well be driven to wonder if anything has changed; once again our heroes and heroines are doing battle in a distant land and their families are living quietly in sub-standard accommodation at home. They (my grandfather amongst them) were promised many years ago 'Homes fit for heroes' – but the last but one Conservative / Liberal Coalition found that honouring promises to heroes cost too much (what price the sacrifice made at the front?) once the war was over thus fell the Geddes Axe...

The only honourable exception to this roll of shame was the 1945 Labour Government, the rest have readily and speedily betrayed their promises our service personnel - admittedly usually after a wars conclusion rather than while it is still going on. It is deeply ironic that with the ninetieth anniversary of a UK Government betraying its promise to our soldiers to ensure that they had homes fit for heroes after the 1914 – 1918 war; that we find ourselves in a situation where soldiers families are living in sub-standard accommodation and our veterans and the sharp end of shoddy treatment for services rendered .

Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, promised today to provide a 24-hour helpline and an additional 30 mental health nurses for veterans and serving soldiers - lets hope this Government keeps its promises to our veterans and our serving service personnel.