Legal opinion pours cold water on Bedwas coal mine plan

We’ve teamed up with our friends at the Good Law Project to obtain expert legal advice, revealing that ERI Ltd’s disastrous proposal to mine two of the Bedwas coal tips is unlikely to get the necessary licence. If it does, we’re confident we can challenge it, and challenge it we would. A solution is needed for coal tips abandoned by the coal industry, but more coal mining isn’t it. Particularly with the sensitive ecology that has slowly regained a foothold in the area around the coal tips, and are threatened by the proposal to mine the area again.

ERI Ltd launched its pre-application consultation in early 2024 to mine two coal tips in Bedwas, South Wales. The company is proposing to extract a total of around 468,000 tonnes of coal from both tips. This would drive further climate chaos by over 1.3 million tonnes of CO2, as well as devastate the coal tips’ natural regeneration over the past 30 years since it was abandoned. The project also endangers the beautiful Sirhowy Valley Country Park bordering one of the tips. ERI Ltd claims it would use some of the profits from the coal mining to restore the coal tips afterwards. This amounts to more coal mining to clean up the mess left by old coal mining—we’ve been here before with the nearby Ffos-y-fran site, and we know it doesn’t end well.

ERI Ltd’s hopes of getting a coal licence to mine the Bedwas coal tips are likely dashed by the Labour Government’s manifesto intention to prevent any new licences to be issued for coal mining. Therefore, ERI Ltd only has one other option – to try to get an ‘incidental coal agreement’ from the Coal Authority. However, guidance we’ve received from the Coal Authority and from Toby Fisher, Barrister at Matrix Chambers, London, makes it appear unlikely that ERI Ltd’s proposal to mine the Bedwas tips would be eligible for an incidental coal agreement.

Responding to our Freedom of Information request in March 2024, The Coal Authority explained that “…incidental coal agreements are designed to allow a developer to safely remove coal found during the development of a site. Any coal encountered is not mined for commercial purposes, it is being removed as a necessary part of the safe development of the site. In this way, it differs to a licensed mining operation which specifically employs people to remove the coal for commercial reasons.” (own emphasis).

Underscoring that incidental coal agreements are not issued for projects aiming to extract commercial quantities of coal, another Freedom of Information request revealed that just 3,500 tonnes of coal had been extracted nationwide over the past 18 months under incidental coal agreements. To put that into context, one opencast coal mine extracted this amount in just three days.

The legal opinion of Toby Fisher, Barrister at the highly-regarded Matrix Chambers, further assures us that any attempt by ERI Ltd to obtain an incidental coal agreement for its Bedwas coal tips is very unlikely to be successful—and can be challenged through the Courts if it is. Fisher’s advice also highlighted the relevance of the recent R (Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group) v Surrey CC legal victory. We are grateful to the Good Law Project for their support in obtaining this legal opinion and support for our campaign.

With over 300 category D coal tips in South Wales alone, ERI Ltd’s proposal could trigger a new wave of coal mining if it were successful. For the sake of localised impacts and our collective climate, we are therefore committed to challenging an application by ERI Ltd every step of the way, together with the local community resistance, Sirhowy Valley Country Park support group, Good Law Project, Friends of the Earth Cymru, and Climate Cymru.

Regular safety monitoring is considered sufficient for most category D coal tips abandoned by the coal industry in South Wales. But for coal tips that pose a danger to nearby communities, more coal mining isn’t the solution—we need swift remediation sensitive to local ecologies and lives. These diverse fungi were spotted by a local resident on a single walk nearby the coal tips:

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