Government sets aside £10m for redundant miners

The
Government has announced a raft of measures to support the 2,100 Selby coal
miners that lost their jobs yesterday.

The
package announced today includes:

–
£10m to enable Selby miners to receive pre-privatisation redundancy terms

–
£5,000 per head for ex-British Coal mineworkers at Longannet mine

–
multi-agency taskforce to provide regeneration and retraining for Selby

–
consultation on an investment aid scheme for the coal industry

–
a targeted extension of the operating aid scheme until December 2002

Secretary
of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt said: "The chief executive
of UK Coal, Gordon McPhie, said today ‘there was no prospect of the Selby
complex becoming viable’. Our analysis supports this conclusion: the
independent review undertaken on our behalf by IMC Group Consulting Ltd has
endorsed UK Coal’s assessment that there is little prospect for a later closure
date."

The
Government also announced a multi-agency task force to combat the impact of the
pit closures in the Selby Coalfield to be led by Yorkshire Forward member Lord
Haskins.

Yorkshire
Forward is the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Development Agency.

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£1.5
million is being provided up front to enable the task force to undertake its
analysis.

By Paul Nelson