Where's our opencast moratorium?
Published: 21 Apr 2016
Where’s our opencast moratorium?
Environmental campaigners have marked Earth Day 2016 - the first anniversary of a vote for a moratorium on opencast coal-mining in Wales - by asking: Where’s our moratorium?
On 22 April 2015, the National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously to “instigate a moratorium on opencast mining across Wales”. But no action has been taken - other than a ‘coal summit’ last July.
Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, Gareth Clubb, said:
“We had high hopes that the Welsh Government would observe the democratic will of the people of Wales as expressed in the Senedd. But instead the issue was just kicked into the long grass.
“Communities have had a gutsful of dirty, polluting opencast mines on their doorsteps. Taxpayers are sick of hearing of the massive costs we’ll end up paying to restore abandoned opencast mines. And voters rightly wonder what on earth happened to the landslide vote in favour of a moratorium on new opencast mines.
“It’s a simple question for the Welsh Government.
“Where’s our opencast moratorium?”