§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Legh.]
§ 11.47 p.m.
§ Mr. Roy Mason (Barnsley)I wish to raise a matter of considerable concern to all people who reside in or near coal mining areas in the country, namely, the uncontrolled extension of colliery spoil heaps. I am glad to be able to raise this matter in spite of the lateness of the hour. Many hon. Members have mentioned that they have missed their last bus or train. I have already missed mine and at the conclusion of this debate I shall be faced with a long walk through the City of London. That is one of the trials and tribulations which face hon. Members who try to stick to the archaic traditions of this House. I am sorry about it, but it is one of the things that we have to put up with. I am pleased that we have present tonight not only the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, but also the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power. It shows that his Department and the National Coal Board are taking an interest in this matter.
The situation is becoming increasingly serious as more dirt is being extracted and spilled over the countryside than ever before. The position has been reached when we can say that matters are getting out of hand. The area general managers of the National Coal Board are aware of it. In fact, I think that they are sympathetic to the view that all these spoil extensions should be controlled. However, there is no directive from the Coal Board and therefore they dare not act. The nasty, brutish-looking black heaps are completely dominating the scenery in the mining areas, many times creeping up to within a few yards of houses. They spill over on to the main roads, and when there is a heavy downpour of rain, avalanches cascade over the roads, causing much unnecessary inconvenience. The tipping causes a cloud of dust to settle periodically on the mining villages, and with the smoke which comes from many of these burning stacks, life is very unhealthy and grim, as may be imagined.
1562 Public desire and planning knowledge has now reached the stage when we need not tolerate their existence in their present form any longer. Another point is the unscrupulous way in which these spoil heap extensions are gobbling up valuable agricultural land which will be lost for all time. The Minister is now aware of the problem, and I am grateful for his interest and for accepting my invitation to view the problem at first hand. I am grateful also to the Sheffield Telegraph for assisting by publicising the campaign to rid the coal fields of these terrible eyesores. The tour was planned by a West Riding County Council officer, Mr. Arthur Bates, who has done a tremendous amount of work on this problem by experimenting in various ways to find the best method of tackling the growth of spoil heaps and also the elimination of abandoned ones.
In the West Riding playing fields and even sites for factories have been reclaimed from small derelict spoil heaps, contrasting with massive uncontrolled heaps 150 ft. high covering many acres and spoiling the natural beauty of the mining valleys. In the area of Feather-stone the Minister saw a derelict heap 40 ft. high running through the town alongside the road for 1½ miles—a monstrosity. At little cost it could be graded into a protective bank, grassed over, and planted with shrubs and flowers, so that it would transform the district into one of beauty.
A large South Yorkshire colliery has a site of 70 acres, and it is tipping at the rate of 1,000 tons of dirt a day. This rate will soon be increasing to 1,500 tons a day. The heap sprawls right out into the countryside. The Minister saw it, and we agreed that it was an appalling sight.
There are scores of these instances in Yorkshire. Throughout the country there are hundreds. In the West Riding alone there are 96 pits producing about 42 million tons of coal annually. The Board estimates that the waste output is about 30 per cent. of the saleable coal, which means that 12 million tons of waste will be deposited on spoil heaps in Yorkshire each year.
The total acreage of the heaps already amounts to more than 4,000 acres, and it is increasing at the rate of 150 acres a 1563 year. In England and Wales there are about 51,000 acres covered by spoil heaps, and the area is growing at the rate of 500 acres a year The figure is rapidly increasing as we are mining thinner and dirtier seams than previously.
Control is now an urgent necessity. At present there is planning control over new spoil heaps only. There is none whatever over extensions which have taken place and are continuing to take place since the issue of the General Development Order of 1950 which authorised continuation of tipping on land comprised in a site used for the deposit of waste material or refuse on 1st July, 1948.
In the West Riding about one-third of the tips have come under planning control, but the remaining two-thirds continue to operate under the provisions of Class XX of the General Development Order. We should like the Order revoked or amended so that planning permission must be sought for the extensions. That is our first, immediate aim.
The Board has co-operated with a few small schemes, but these are a drop in the ocean compared with the ever-growing scale of the problem. Many local authorities are sorely disturbed at the lack of planning control, so much so that conferences have recently been held to discuss the problem. I now understand that deputations from the Urban District Councils Association and the Rural District Councils Association are to visit the Minister.
We are asking the Board to accept a measure of control over the use of land which already applies to ordinary people. We have no intention of interfering with any of its existing plant or machinery. Our primary object is to bring under control land not at present used for the deposition of waste. In that way the Board will be brought into line with the ordinary citizen, who cannot change the use of land without applying for planning consent. All we ask is that planning consent must be sought for extensions to pit heaps on virgin ground. We should then require the Board to remove the top soil and either stack it for subsequent replacement or—this is much more sensible and it would not cost much more—directly replace it on some part 1564 of the heap already made but now disused, and put it to immediate good use. The Minister must agree that that is the most sensible course.
There is another very important reason why the control of future tipping is necessary. In the light of Section 18 of the Clean Air Act, 1956, the Board is now under an obligation to adopt the best practicable methods to avoid the firing of its tipping. Generally that will involve a reduction in the use of high ridge tips and conical tips, which are particularly prone to burning because of the large surface which they present for the ingress of oxygen. In other words, flatter tips will be the future design instead of mountainous ones. The danger here is that larger sites will be required, and therefore, because of the demands of the Clean Air Act, the demand for the control of these tips at this time is also most opportune.
Having dealt with the need for control at the present, what of the future? As I said earlier, there are 4,000 acres of waste heaps in Yorkshire and 51,000 in the country. Although I am measuring their size in acres, make no mistake about it, their ghastly appearance, distortion of landscape, and depreciation of area value, can never be truly measured. Only those who live among these grimy hills fully understand how depressing they can be.
It is my desire to see all these derelict and abandoned heaps treated in such a way that they virtually vanish from the scene. That can be done, but it depends, of course, on the will of the Ministers concerned. This is a national question, and a plan to deal with it on such a scale must be devised. From the many experiments conducted in the West Riding an estimate of its cost can be made. They have shown that the cost of bulldozing these derelict heaps to reasonable levels and making side slopes of not more than 1 in 3 would average £150 per acre. The cost of seeding these tips without putting on a layer of top soil would be a further £50 per acre. On that basis we could rid the West Riding of the old tips at a cost of £100,000 per year over eight years. Nationally the cost would be £500,000 a year for the next eight years. That represents ½d. per ton on the price of coal. I doubt if anyone would quibble at such a price to get rid of these scars on our landscape.
1565 I therefore ask the Minister quite frankly if he will assure me that he is willing to consider this suggestion with his right hon. Friend the Paymaster-General, and forward me their observations at a later date.
Those, then, are the two aspects of the matter: first, the urgent desire to obtain control over all extensions of colliery spoil heaps in just the same way as control is exercised over new ones; and, secondly, the desire that a national effort be made in order to get rid of all the old abandoned spoil heaps. I hope that the Minister will tonight go some way to relieve our anxieties and at least announce his intention to introduce planning control.
§ 11.58 p.m.
§ Mr. Harold Finch (Bedwellty)My hon. Friend has done a service in calling the attention of the House to the increasing spoilation of mining areas by these spoil heaps. He has referred to Yorkshire, of which he has an intimate knowledge, but what applies to Yorkshire equally applies to other coal fields. In Wales we are in the unenviable position of having 1,235 colliery site heaps, covering 11,859 acres at present. It is not only a question of marring the landscape. These heaps are dangerous to health, for the airborne dust blows across the towns and villages in Wales, with all the evil that accompanies it.
Apart from that, many of these spoil heaps are liable to spontaneous combustion. Further, they impair the activities of the local authorities in trying to improve amenities in mining districts. We know that many of these tips are adjacent to the main roads and dwelling-houses, and some are near to the centres of towns and villages in the mining districts.
In these circumstances there is growing dissatisfaction among all sections of the community in the valleys of Wales, and among all sections of the Press, which are commenting frequently about this unsatisfactory state of affairs. The Press frequently views with alarm the increasing number of these tips. The Western Mail, in South Wales, has had informative and instructive articles on the problem, as has the South Wales Argus.
There are three categories in which the problem can be put. The first consists of the new tips, but as those are subject to 1566 the control of the planning authority we can leave them out of this consideration. The second category is the main problem—the extension of tips in use on or before 1st July, 1945. They can be, and are being, extended without either planning or control.
The 1950 Development Order allowed the National Coal Board to continue to extend those tips without consulting the planning authority, and although I recognise that the Board has in most cases co-operated with the planning authority, the fact remains that the whole purpose of the Town and Country Planning Act is being frustrated by that Order. My main point, therefore, is that that Order should be revoked.
The third type referred to by my hon. Friend are the derelict tips. The Miners' Parliamentary Group and various authorities have discussed the matter, and we have had expert advice. This job could be done with bulldozers, and the mountainous heaps made more like plateaux. There could be afforestation, and what a great difference that would make to the valleys of Wales. It would also add to recruitment to the mining industry, because these places are depressing chiefly because of the presence of these ghastly tips and the lack of amenities.
I hope that we shall hear that the Government will take steps at least to start a campaign to get rid of the rubbish tips in the Welsh coal fields, as well as the others in the country, and so help recruitment and help to bring into the valleys those amenities which have for so long been necessary, and lacking.
§ 12.3 a.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. J. R. Bevins)I am sure the House is indebted to the hon. Member for Barnsley (Mr. Mason) for raising this matter tonight. I dare say that there are some people, especially those who do not live in the mining areas, who are inclined to look upon these spoil heaps as part of the industrial scene and, in some mystical way, to regard them as symbolical of the industrial greatness centring on the coal fields. But I must say, having had the opportunity, at the invitation of the hon. Member for Barnsley, of making a brief visit to the Yorkshire coal field, that I came away quite convinced that the Government 1567 certainly have a duty to do what they can to deal effectively with the problem.
It is perfectly true, as the hon. Member has said, that some of these heaps are situated in villages, and literally overhang the houses of the people working in the mining industry. It is equally true that some of the most beautiful valleys in Yorkshire are despoiled by these black monsters that seem to grow in their midst. I agree that that sort of thing simply mocks at our modern conception of planning.
My right hon. Friend was recently in South Wales, and he has asked me to say that both in his capacity as Minister in control of planning and as Minister for Welsh Affairs he feels very strongly about this problem, and certainly means to do all he can, but I am sure that the hon. Gentlemen will agree with me when I say that there is no easy or quick solution. Various ideas have been tried in the past. There has been the idea of underground stowage of the spoil material, but very often that is not practicably possible. In certain places this spoil has been dumped into the sea, but certain of the waste material often returns on to the nearby beaches. Thirdly, of course, efforts have been made to get rid of it by burying it in the filling-up of disused pits and quarries; but there, transport costs prohibit frequent action of that sort.
Several of the county authorities have done very useful work, some of it of an experimental nature. Lancashire County Council has seeded shale tips direct with good results, and has experimented in tree planting. About 200 of these spoil heaps have been more or less satisfactorily planted with trees. In the West Riding of Yorkshire there has been a successful grassing experiment; there is at least one, and perhaps more, but in one case I know that the grassing has been done so well that the site is now used as a sports field for children.
This problem, as the hon. Gentleman has said, falls under three heads. First, the disused and abandoned heaps which cannot reasonably be regarded as the responsibility of the National Coal Board but are rather the responsibility of the local authorities. About a quarter of these are in or near built-up areas, and in many cases we feel that it would be 1568 practicable for them to be used for building or for playing fields. But although that would be a costly job and obviously cannot be done overnight, it is a matter to which we should like the local authorities to apply themselves. The other three-quarters are in country districts where reclamation of land is less important than doing away with the bad effect on the countryside; and there we should like to see trees or grass or shrubs.
The Government are most anxious that the local authorities should take energetic action in this matter.
§ Mr. BevinsYes; I shall come to that point.
The Forestry Commission is prepared to help with technical advice, and, in some cases, with financial assistance in selecting and planting suitable trees. On the question of financial aid, the position is that the Minister is prepared to consider the giving of monetary help under the planning Acts, but it must be made clear that so long as financial stringency continues, it may not be possible to give all the help that we should like to do. At the same time, that does not mean that the local authorities should delay the preparation of schemes which they regard as desirable. We should like to see schemes prepared so that, as soon as may be, we can do what we can in the way of financial aid.
Next, there are the new tips, about which I do not think I need say anything; and so we come to the most contentious part of the problem—the extension of existing heaps. It has been said, and quite rightly, that the General Development Order allows unconditional tipping on a site used for that purpose in 1947 or before. It is suggested by the hon. Member that that provision should be repealed altogether, but I am advised that if that were done, we should need to consider planning applications for the very large number of individual spoil heaps in use and that the planning authorities which required changes in methods of tipping would be liable to pay compensation.
I admit that it is arguable that the repeal of the appropriate provision in the Development Order could perhaps be so framed as to enable tipping to continue until the nature of the planning 1569 permission in each case had been settled between the National Coal Board and the planning authority, but our present view—I put it no higher than that—is that before any steps are taken on those lines we should want to know a good more about the practical possibilities.
What rather causes anxiety in the mind of my right hon. Friend is that so much of the work which has been done so far by the local authorities, although it promises to be successful, has been very largely of an experimental character. We do not feel absolutely convinced at the moment that we should be right to accept that suggestion on the basis of present experience. My right hon. Friend is, therefore, not convinced that that is the right method of approach.
The alternative is for the various planning authorities to issue directions withdrawing the permission for particular spoil heaps, followed of course by the granting of a new planning permission on terms acceptable to the planning authority. That seems to my right hon. Friend to be a more practical approach, because it would enable us to tackle, in the first place, those heaps which are the most offensive and Which we know it is feasible to improve. These cases could be discussed and agreed with the National Coal Board before any legal steps at all were taken.
We believe that a few actual operations like that would give us a great deal in the way of experience and supply us with some of the important information which we lack at the moment. We 1570 are inviting the West Riding County Council to submit evidence about a dozen of these cases, so that we can examine the proposals put forward, as well as their financial implications, before we discuss them with the Ministry of Power and the National Coal Board.
Of course, as the hon. Member for Bedwellty (Mr. Finch) said, this problem is not limited to the Yorkshire coal field. My right hon. Friend would welcome views or examples from other parts of the country. The problem was, I think, touched upon in our recent debate on Welsh affairs. I realise, as does my right hon. Friend, that the problem in South Wales is in some respects different from the problem in Yorkshire.
It may be that there are other means of getting to grips with this part of the problem. My right hon. Friend is very ready to consider any other proposal. I should like to assure the hon. Gentleman that my right hon. Friend's mind is not closed to the possibility of a suitable amendment to the General Development Order. He will certainly consider very carefully what has been said in this short discussion tonight, but we are so much in earnest about this problem that we are anxious to take early action without delay, and that is why I have said what I have said. May I, in conclusion, again express my personal indebtedness to the hon. Member for Barnsley for his co-operation?
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at fourteen minutes past Twelve o'clock.