Limestone Mines (Hansard, 27 July 1989)

§ Mr. Moynihan

I have considered the second report of the black country limestone advisory panel and have taken into account the views expressed by the local authorities in the black country and Shropshire and by private sector financial institutions. Earlier this year my hon. Friend the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Mr. Trippier), met the chairman and members of the panel to discuss the issues raised by this report.

The Government welcome and endorse the strategy as proposed by the panel. They agree that overall priority should be given to action to protect public safety and that the protection of existing property and the potential for new development or re-development are important considerations. To that end, they will continue to give high priority to funding investigations of the limestone mines and to remedial action where it is appropriate and represents value for money. Over £20 million has already been spent under the derelict land grant provisions and a further £6 million will be spent in 1989–90.

I understand that the first two targets established by the panel, for completion of initial desk appraisals and of investigations to establish the physical condition of a mine, are well on the way to being met. Only at the completion of these stages can the implications of the limestone problems be understood in their entirety and only then can a definitive programme of action to resolve the problems be established. I am, therefore, asking the panel to keep me informed on a regular basis on progress with investigations and proposals for remedial action so that the programme can be kept under review.

It is important to recognise, however, that the amounts of money involved, while they cannot as yet be precisely 942W defined, are substantial. The timetable proposed by the panel may therefore need to be extended in view of the many competing demands for the limited resources which are available. It must also be recognised that it will not be possible to treat every individual mine immediately the need for treatment is identified. Following the panel's strategy, however, would enable all concerned to know what action would be taken, how priorities would be assessed and when they could expect the problems to be resolved. This should assist in removing a great deal of the uncertainty which has existed to date.

Given these constraints, it would seem reasonable to suggest that it should be possible to resolve the bulk of the limestone problems in the west midlands by the middle to late 1990s.

However, resolution of the problems does not necessarily mean complete in-filling of every mine. as has been recognised by the panel in its report. There may well be cases where the most cost-effective solution will be to repair any damage caused by subsidence as and when it occurs. In such cases, the Government would look to both local authorities and the private sector to work together with central Government as outlined in the Secretary of State's response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr. Shepherd) of 6 April 1987. I believe that such a co-operative response, taken with the Government's endorsement of the panel's strategy, should go a long way in restoring confidence in the area and relieving the understandable concern that has arisen due to the presence of old limestone mine workings and the threat of subsidence that they pose.