Coalfield 'to close'

UK Coal bosses are expected to announce tomorrow a closure date of spring 2004 as the complex continues to incur heavy losses.

Some of Selby's 2,200 miners will be made redundant later this year, with more next year, as part of a phased rundown, which will start almost immediately.

It is understood that the Government has agreed to contribute £30 million to reduce the economic impact of the closure on Selby, and to fund re-training programmes for redundant miners.

The Evening Press also understands that Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt this weekend approved a £13 million state handout to help fund more generous redundancy pay-outs.

Miners feared they would lose out on thousands of pounds when the present enhanced redundancy payments expire next March, leaving them with just the £6,000 state pay-out.

But following last-minute negotiations between UK Coal and the Department of Trade and Industry, Mrs Hewitt has agreed the £13 million contribution to what will be a £43 million redundancy bill at Selby.

The company will be expected to fund the remaining £30 million.

Selby MP John Grogan had asked for a £100 million closure aid package, which would have seen the closure date put back to autumn 2005, but has had to settle for a compromise deal.

A special Selby task force to oversee the rundown and closure will now be set up within days.

It will be headed by a senior businessman, and members will include Mr Grogan, council chiefs, and the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward.

The task force will play a central role in ensuring that Selby is spared the devastation suffered by mining communities during the wholesale closure of pits in the 1980s and 1990s.

A recent report by experts at Leeds University said that early closure of the coalfield could lead to the loss of 5,000 jobs across the region and £130 million a year being lost to Selby's economy.

The £1.5 billion complex, which has lost £93 million in the last three years, is continuing to haemorrhage money at a colossal rate.

If performances fail to improve at Riccall, Wistow and Stillingfleet mines the spring 2004 closure date could even be brought forward.

All three mines have been dogged by geological problems and are heavily in the red, despite being given £43 million in Government subsidies in the last two years.

National Union of Mineworkers' officials at Selby accuse UK Coal of preferring to reward shareholders rather than invest in developing millions of tonnes of coal reserves.

Wistow NUM branch secretary Ken Rowley says his members believe they have been "shafted by the accountants".

But the company's chief executive, Gordon McPhie, has repeatedly warned that it cannot continue to sustain such heavy losses, and that costs have to be significantly reduced to compete with cheaper foreign coal.

Despite investing £250 million in new plant and equipment, some of it at Selby, productivity levels were still well below world class.

Output figures from Selby clearly show the dramatic rise and fall of the world's largest deep-mine complex.

In 1993-4 Selby pits produced 12 million tonnes of coal - but in the past two years that has reduced by about 60 per cent to 4.5 million tonnes a year.

Updated: 14:49 Monday, July 15, 2002