br2975 Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 Rhondda Cynon Taf Council ha ve given the green light to a scheme to regenerate the site of the former Tower Colliery. . Tower Regeneration Ltd. which was formed last year, and includes Hargreaves Services, initially intends to establish an opencast mine on the site in order to recvover an estimated 6,000,000 tonnes of coal over a period of seven years. . The developers believe coal could be leaving the site by Christmas. Once this has been extracted, the site will be restored to its' original condition (pre-Tower Colliery) with affordable housing, agriculture and an environment resource centre. . One paragraph in the South Wales Echo appears to 'put a damper' on the scheme as far as we're concerned. "RCT councillors have been assured that legally binding agreements will ensure coal lorries use only agreed routes . . . . ." Hopefully this only relates to the carriage of coal from the opencast site to the Tower loading pad located at the end of the branch from Aberdare ? If so 'more regular' coal traffic may return to the branch instead of the very irregular trains carrying coal 'roaded' up the Glyn Neath Bank from sourcesat the top of the Vale of Neath. Watch this space. Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted July 29, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 29, 2011 Rhondda Cynon Taf Council "Once this has been extracted, the site will be restored to its' original condition (pre-Tower Colliery) with affordable housing, agriculture and an environment resource centre". Someone's go carried away with what was on the site before the colliery. If there was significant amounts of affordable housing and an environmental resource centre in pre colliery times, I'll eat my hat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted July 29, 2011 Author Share Posted July 29, 2011 Someone's go carried away with what was on the site before the colliery. If there was significant amounts of affordable housing and an environmental resource centre in pre colliery times, I'll eat my hat. It will be (apparently) landscaped, the other industrial relics, ruins and detritus disposed of and 'affordbale' housing etc built on the site. Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointstaken Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 What on earth is an "environmental resource centre" ? Some nonsense invented by an over-zealous PR hack ? Dennis Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 If there are to be trains, they should specify centre headcode BR blue class 37 haulage with 21 tonne 4 wheel coal wagons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted July 29, 2011 Share Posted July 29, 2011 What on earth is an "environmental resource centre" ? Some nonsense invented by an over-zealous PR hack ? It's a visitor attraction built entirely from recyclable materials with other peoples' money so that when it fails miserably to meet its visitor targets you can landfill the whole thing with a clean conscience and build something else on it. Or not. Doncaster Earth Centre According to the initial proposal the coal is going out by rail. BBC linky. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmisterporter Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 It seems strange to me that Tower Colliery ceased mining operations if there are still 6 millon tons of accessible coal. Geoff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted August 1, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 1, 2011 I suspect that the coal may be mined by opencast methods. IIRC deep mines never touched the seams near the shafts so that they remained stable also there will be seams nearer the surface that were too shallow for a deep mine but are now accessible from the surface. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kris Posted August 1, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 1, 2011 It seems strange to me that Tower Colliery ceased mining operations if there are still 6 millon tons of accessible coal. Geoff. Just because it is accessible, it does not mean that it can be removed at a profit. With the rising price of metals and minerals sites that were once unprofitable can once again be worked. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stuartp Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 As well as not necessarily being profitable at the time, it's not necessarily accessible while the pit is working. A considerable quantity of ground has to be left undisturbed around the shafts (the 'shaft pillar') to prevent subsidence and geological movement while the pit is working. Once it closes the shaft pillars can be removed, or at least the bits near enough to the surface to be opencasted can be removed. While they're digging the hole for that they might as well remove any thinner seams of coal which would be uneconomic to deep mine whatever the current price of coal. It is an irony not lost on those living in mining areas that the only buildings which don't (usually) suffer from subsidence are the colliery buildings ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike Posted August 1, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 1, 2011 Just because it is accessible, it does not mean that it can be removed at a profit. Exactly. The UK has sufficient coal reserves for a substantial period (I can't remember the estimate), but the question was always whether they could be extracted economically. Whether we like it or not it was/is cheaper to import coal from Brazil/Poland etc than to mine it ourselves. Of course as commodity prices increase that balance may change. What (IMO) was really short sighted was putting many of the mines beyond easy use when they were closed. It surely didn't take Nostradamus to work out that UK coal would become viable again at some point. Cheers, Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redkiterail Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 there is also suphur to take into consinderation most forgin coal has less suphulr than uk coal and this varies between fields hence another reason in the 80s coal mines were closed off due to the acid rain issues. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 What (IMO) was really short sighted was putting many of the mines beyond easy use when they were closed. It surely didn't take Nostradamus to work out that UK coal would become viable again at some point. A bit like getting rid of any (remotely) surplus stock prior to rail privatisation, to stop a future competitor using it to your detriment ? Brian R Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ramblin Rich Posted August 1, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 1, 2011 there is also suphur to take into consinderation most forgin coal has less suphulr than uk coal and this varies between fields hence another reason in the 80s coal mines were closed off due to the acid rain issues. Having seen some horribly yellow sulphurous smoke from the Snowden Railway locos a couple of years ago, I'd think the sulphur content of the imported stuff might not be so great either.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karhedron Posted August 1, 2011 Share Posted August 1, 2011 What (IMO) was really short sighted was putting many of the mines beyond easy use when they were closed. It surely didn't take Nostradamus to work out that UK coal would become viable again at some point. In the same way that it was short-sighted not to preserve the routes of closed railway lines so that they could be re-opened if travelling patterns changed. Sadly the political environment in this country does little to encourage true long-term planning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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