FIREBRAND former miners' leader Arthur Scargill told a York audience last night that the closure of the Selby pit has shut the door on a source of wealth for the region.

The honorary president of the National Union of Miners (NUM) was in the city to mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1984 strike that changed the face of industrial protest in Britain forever.

Visiting as a guest of the York Socialist Labour Party, he told a packed hall of almost 100 people that he still passionately believes that coal is a viable, clean and efficient fuel.

He was speaking just a fortnight after Riccall Mine closed, bringing an end to mining in the Selby coal complex which started in 1983 and at its height employed up to 4,000 people.

Mr Scargill said: "We've seen in the last few weeks the closure of what is known as the Selby coalfield. That is another community to have closed pits which are rich in coal reserves.

"The coal that has been mined since 1980 is only one seam. There are five other seams below that which could and should have been mined, bringing tremendous wealth to this area.

"Those seams of coal go as far as the coast and through Lincolnshire, not through areas vastly inhabited, not through York, but through open countryside."

Linda Sheridan, of the York Socialist Labour Party, described Mr Scargill as the greatest union leader of the last century and a man who remains "deeply committed" to his socialist principles.

He spoke for more than an hour on his experiences at the head of the NUM in 1984 and 1985 as it battled the Tory Government over the future of mining in this country.

He said that the last two decades have seen the number of coal pits in Britain reduced from 180 to nine with the loss of around 160,000 jobs.

He lashed out at political leaders including Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock and said he was "betrayed" by other union leaders who did not support the miners.

"In every town and city including York we had support groups with people from all political persuasions and walks of life prepared to give to miners, because they had a gut feeling that what was happening was wrong," he said.

Updated: 10:18 Friday, November 12, 2004