§ 11.42pm
§ Ms. Joyce Quin (Gateshead, East)I beg to ask leave to present a petition on behalf of opencast workers employed at the Swalwell disposal point in Gateshead. These workers are to be relocated and many will, as a result, lose their jobs.
The petition states that the workers feel unfairly discriminated against, as they do not receive retraining or redundancy payments at anything like the levels of their colleagues who are classified as deep miners and who work for British Coal, even though the same levy is imposed on the coal with which both sector workers deal.
They feel that their situation is unique, as, unlike many opencast sites, theirs has been closed not because there is no longer a market for their coal but because the site has been acquired for another purpose.
The petition concludes:
Wherefore, your petitioners pray that your honourable House will be sympathetic to our unique situation and press Her Majesty's Government to invoke the Treaty of Paris to enable us to be fairly and justly compensated.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
§ To lie upon the Table.
378§ 11.43pm
§ Mr. John McWilliam (Blaydon)I present on behalf of my constituents a petition in exactly the same terms as that presented by my hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead, East (Ms. Quin). Bearing in mind that my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgend (Mr. Griffiths) will shortly initiate an important Adjournment debate on the subject of opencast mines, I will not detain the House by reading the terms of the petition.