The Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme was a major opencast coaling operation to the north-east of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. It was the last major opencast mine in the UK, and it shut down in November 2023 with restoration planned to start in 2024.[1]
The contracted excavator/reclaiming company was Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd (prev Miller Argent), which is owned by Gwent Investments Limited, a privately owned family business based in South Wales. The scheme development was the last part of the East Merthyr Reclamation scheme, and planned to extract 10 million tonnes of coal over 15 years starting from 2007, with the intention of using part of the revenue to redevelop the current former industrial workings into residential and recreational use.
The opencast coal mine has provoked criticism at a local[2] and national scale, including objections on health and safety grounds as to the close proximity of housing to the site, concerns of the despoiling of the landscape, and global concerns of the contribution of coal to climate change.[3] A number of protests have occurred on and around the site.[4][5]
The license of the site expired in September 2022; an application for a 9-month extension was filed with Merthyr Tydfil Council.[6] That application was refused in April 2023, meaning the site would have to close.[7] In August 2023, the company announced that the mine will close by the end of November 2023.[8] The mine shut down in November 2023 as planned.[1]
Following the 18th century development of Merthyr as an industrial centre, and the shut-down of the deepcast coal mining industry from the 1930s through to the 1980s, the area to the east of Merthyr Tydfil has suffered severe dereliction. The East Merthyr Reclamation Scheme was the initiative of the former Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and Mid Glamorgan County Council, in partnership with the Welsh Development Agency in the mid-1980s and was launched by the Secretary of State for Wales following the grant of planning permission. The aim was to extract coal from the area of East Merthyr by the cheapest and most profitable means, rather than detracting from it and its environment. The East Merthyr Reclamation Scheme is made up of three phases, each with the objective of reclaiming the derelict and dangerous land to the east of Merthyr Tydfil, using revenues from surface coal mining operations, restoring the land to beneficial use at no cost to the public purse.
Phases I 'Incline Top' and II the Dowlais'Great White Tip' of the Scheme were completed in 1993 and 1997 respectively, restoring 106ha of derelict land to provide residential, light industrial and recreational uses. The 'Ffos-y-fran Land Reclamation Scheme', represents the third, and final, stage of the wider East Merthyr Reclamation Scheme. It is the largest of the original three phases and will restore over 360ha of previously derelict and disturbed land. Once completed, the land, which will be fit for upland grazing, with safe access for use by the community, will be returned to the Planning Authority.