Ffos y Fran proposal is a ‘betrayal’ say local campaigners

Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, the owner of Ffos y Fran opencast mine, has applied to Merthyr Council to revise the restoration scheme of the site down to the barest minimum.

If Merthyr Tydfil Council agree to the revised ‘restoration’ plan submitted by the company, the Merthyr community would be left with coal spoil tips and a dangerous deep hole, full of potentially contaminated water and steep, loose slopes, which would be a hazard well into the future for residents, particularly children and young people.

Over 200 people wrote their objections to the massively downgraded restoration proposal on postcards, during several community engagement events in Merthyr town centre last month (April 2025).

Chris and Alyson Austin, longstanding local campaigners and residents, joined staff from Friends of the Earth Cymru to hand in the postcards to Merthyr Tydfil Council staff.

"Virtually everybody we spoke to believes that the mine should be fully restored, as was originally promised to us,” said Alyson. “When we spoke to people in Merthyr, they were telling us, again and again, that the company has had the coal, so now it must fill the hole! They don’t want this cheap and nasty restoration, which benefits only the mining company and would be the final betrayal of the Merthyr residents.”

“The proposal is being dressed up as an environmentally beneficial option when it is quite evident that the only benefit is to the company itself,” says Chris Austin, who was surprised by the strength of local opposition to the plan. He went on to explain that "this breaks all the promises made to us, the affected community, that had nothing else to gain from this scheme. This land reclamation scheme was originally forced on the Merthyr community because we were told that the land was dangerous and derelict and had to be restored. Now, after suffering 17 years of opencast coal mining on our doorstep, we are to be left with dangerous and derelict land along with massive new spoil tips.”

As the council considers the application, Friends of the Earth Cymru and other campaigners have requested that Welsh Government call-in the revised restoration scheme.

Given the national significance of this application, both in terms of community and environmental impact, and how controversial it is, we believe it is essential that this application is scrutinised, and the decision made by Welsh Government Ministers.