BRITISH COAL MINE INDUSTRY AND REGENERATION

That this House registers the sad end of the British coal mining industry, which at its height following the ending of the Second World War employed over 700,000 miners in its ranks, working in around 960 collieries throughout the UK; notes the employment, financial, social, health and industrial contribution of the industry to both the nation and those who worked and lived within its associated communities; is alarmed by recent statistics which reveal major shortfalls of employment opportunities in these areas for people of working age, with one in seven in this category unemployed or on benefits; and calls on the Government not to stand idly by and allow such disgraceful economic neglect to continue, but instead launch a major regenerative strategy to deal with the legacies left behind, refocus plans such as those aimed at mainly city projects to coalfield areas, protect such communities from any disadvantage in their planned redistribution of business rates and fully aid economic renewal in employment development into those areas.