§ 15. Mr. Dormandasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he proposes to take to stop the tipping of colliery waste on the foreshore of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneWe have already taken steps to find a cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solution for spoil disposal from coastal collieries, and I am 960 considering what further action is needed in the light of the tenth report of the Royal Commission on environmental pollution.
§ Mr. DormandIs the Minister aware that the 1981 report on coal and the environment and the report to which he has referred today condemned the tipping in the strongest possible terms and that both referred specifically to the north-east coast? Does he agree that it is essential that adequate financial assistance—certainly more than there is at present—be provided for this purpose? Why should the north-east suffer? Would the Minister sit idly by if the beaches of Bournemouth and Torquay were being destroyed?
§ Mr. MacfarlaneThe hon. Gentleman raises an important point. We have already taken some joint action, financed jointly by the NCB and local authorities. on an experimental pipeline at Hordern colliery. Some derelict land grant has already been spent on land reclamation in the hon. Gentleman's county of Durham but the problem is sufficiently difficult for me to wish to visit the hon. Gentleman's constituency to look at the area in some detail within the next six or seven weeks.