Coalfields Communities Debate
Local MP Sandra Osborne has called for both the UK and Scottish Governments to come up with funding to address the £160m restoration costs of the environmental devastation caused in the wake of the liquidation of the two opencast coal companies in East Ayrshire. She was speaking during last week debate in Parliament on ‘Justice for the Coalfields’
Sandra explained
‘I wanted to raise the particular environmental crisis we face here in East Ayrshire as a result of the opencast situation because it adds to the problems our communities still face as a result of the pit closures. Labour called this debate because the recent release of 1984 Cabinet papers show that the Tory Government of the time misled the public about the extent of their pit closure plans and sought to influence police tactics during the strike.
The debate also focused on the economic legacy of the pit closure programme on Coalfield Communities like those in East Ayrshire.
It was also an opportunity to argue for the continuation of the coalfields regeneration programme as part of the wider government plans for regional growth.
We called for an apology from Government Ministers for the lies told at the time by the Thatcher Government both about their secret plans for closures and their plan to deploy the army as recently revealed in the cabinet documents of the time’
Local MP Sandra Osborne has called for both the UK and Scottish Governments to come up with funding to address the £160m restoration costs of the environmental devastation caused in the wake of the liquidation of the two opencast coal companies in East Ayrshire. She was speaking during last week debate in Parliament on ‘Justice for the Coalfields’
Sandra explained
‘I wanted to raise the particular environmental crisis we face here in East Ayrshire as a result of the opencast situation because it adds to the problems our communities still face as a result of the pit closures. Labour called this debate because the recent release of 1984 Cabinet papers show that the Tory Government of the time misled the public about the extent of their pit closure plans and sought to influence police tactics during the strike.
The debate also focused on the economic legacy of the pit closure programme on Coalfield Communities like those in East Ayrshire.
It was also an opportunity to argue for the continuation of the coalfields regeneration programme as part of the wider government plans for regional growth.
We called for an apology from Government Ministers for the lies told at the time by the Thatcher Government both about their secret plans for closures and their plan to deploy the army as recently revealed in the cabinet documents of the time’