Further fears for future of troubled Kellingley Colliery

An employee buyout deal to secure a long-term future for Kellingley Colliery has been thrown into doubt after unions met UK Coal directors.

Earlier this month, workers at the pit gave their backing to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) deal, which would see them invest £2,000 each into a scheme to keep the pit open until 2020.

But after meeting UK Coal’s chief operating officer Derek Parkin, the NUM say the deal would not raise enough to secure a future for the site.

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Earlier this year UK Coal announced plans to close Kellingley and another site in Thoresby, Nottinghamshire, due to the cheap costs of importing coal.

Keith Hartshorne, NUM delegate at Kellingley, said: “UK Coal have informed us of further costs we did not have in our plan.

“They told us that we would have to pick up the closure costs of Thoresby Colliery if we were to carry out an employee buyout.

“The costs of that would be nowhere near covered by our plan and the £2,000 workers would invest. We haven’t raised the white flag just yet but we’ve had a lot of bad news.”

No-one from UK Coal was available for comment when contacted by the Express.