§ 9. Mr. Les Huckfieldasked the Secretary of State for Energy what estimates he has made of the percentage of future coal supplies to be derived from opencast mining.
§ Mr. John MooreAs I told the hon. Member on 28 February this year, the Government have the question of future opencast output under review.
§ Mr. HuckfieldDoes the Minister think that, with some 52 million tonnes of coal stocks on the ground, the time has come to reject all opencast applications? In particular, will he seriously consider rejecting the application in respect of Sudeley in Warwickshire, to which there is now growing local opposition from neighbouring residents, and which will delay industrial development and seriously affect hospital services, and when even the NCB itself has told me that it does not want the coal?
§ Mr. MooreAs I said, opencast output is under review. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will not forget that in the recommendations of the Commission on Energy and the Environment there was an association between the reduction in uneconomic capacity in deep-mined coal and a potential reduction in capacity for opencast. In answer to the hon. Gentleman's point about the Sudeley site, I hope that he will remember that the Conservative Warwickshire county council and the Nuneaton and Bedford Labour-controlled borough council have dropped their objections. If the remaining objections continue there will be a public inquiry, so I do not wish to comment further at this point.
§ Mr. CunliffeDoes the Minister agree that opencast mining was meant not as a substitute for deep coal mining but specifically to complement it? In view of that and the present large amount of unused coal, will the Minister consider revising downwards the opencast mining target of 50 million tonnes per year?
§ Mr. MooreI know that the hon. Gentleman would wish me to remind the House that that target was established by the last Labour Government and that major profits come to the coal industry from that area. In addition, anthracite from South Wales, special coking coals from the north-east and opencast coal from other parts of Britain enable areas with higher chlorine content coal to ensure that the steam market is helped. That is an important part of our coal industry.
§ Mr. EadieAs successive Governments have always tried to limit the production of opencast coal mining, will the Minister give the assurance that the trailer of the expected appointment will not mean that because the individual mentioned had most of his experience in opencast mining in America we are about to see a big expansion of opencast coal mining in Britain? That is unacceptable.
§ Mr. MooreI remind the House that it was the previous Government who said that they sought to increase opencast capacity by 50 per cent. from 10 million to 15 million tonnes. The Government have made it clear that the current level is under review and announcements will be made shortly on that subject.