The Ffos-y-Fran coalmine was supposed to close last September. So why is it still operating? And how long will the local community have to put up with the noise, pollution and health impacts?
Chris and Alyson Austin have put on a spread. “It’s nothing special, just standard Valleys hospitality,” they each in turn insist, de-clingfilming dishes on their dining table. It’s lunchtime on a rainy summer afternoon in South Wales. Drenched as I am from an hour spent on foot in the countryside surrounding their home on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, the oven chips, sausage rolls and sandwiches (egg mayo, ham) are hugely welcome. “We’ve lived in this house for 20 years. It’s where we’ve raised our kids,” Chris explains. “Both of us grew up in this area.” The couple bought the place when the modern estate was brand new. “I was working in computing in Swansea; Alyson was a bookkeeper. The kids were four and six. It was supposed to be the perfect move. All very traditional.”
“That’s the thing,” Alyson chimes in. “There’s nothing unusual about us at all. We’re Mr and Mrs Normal.” She winks in my direction. Because, of course, the pair are anything but. They might not look like archetypal environmental campaigners, but together they’ve spent the past two decades in the trenches of a colossal climate battle – one that unfolded right on their doorstep. Just a few hundred metres away from where we’re sitting is the Ffos-y-Fran opencast coalmine: the UK’s largest, owned by Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd. Even before it opened, they opposed it. It’s a fight they believe, on all accounts, should long be over. Not only because we know how environmentally damaging burning coal is, amid an ever-escalating climate crisis. It’s also that in September last year, permission to mine there expired. The Austins, expert lawyers and environmental groups all allege it has continued to operate illegally. Coal Authority records reveal that more than 284,000 tonnes of coal have been extracted since September.
