IT HAS been announced that Maltby Colliery, just outside Rotherham, is to close.

Management decided that due to geological problems, there was no other choice, so 1,500 miners will lose their jobs.

That’s a shattering blow to the workforce. This will hurt the town of Maltby, where many local businesses will have depended on money from the pit.

It will take a lot of time and adjustment to get back to some sort of normality. Not many pits are open nowadays and redundancy packages will not last for long.

Good luck to the miners who are losing their jobs; I hope something comes up for them.

Tom Mitchell, Mendip Close, Huntington, York.