Mike O'Brien

COAL COMPANY WILL LOOK AT COMPENSATION CONCERNS

 The Chief Executive of UK Coal, the company which owns Daw Mill Colliery, has agreed to look again at compensation issues after a meeting with angry residents in Corley Moor, near Coventry, who have had to wait three years for compensation after mining subsidence damaged their homes.

Jon Lloyd, the Chief Executive of UK Coal, attended the meeting with residents at the request of local MPs, Mike O'Brien and Geoffrey Robinson.  The residents were concerned that subsidence from the colliery had caused cracks and tilted walls in their homes. 

Jon Lloyd said:  "There is a national compensation scheme and UK Coal aims to abide by it.  We aim to pay compensation according to the rules".

The residents told John Lloyd they accepted they lived in a mining area and therefore subsidence might occur but they expected compensation to be paid quickly.  Instead, some of their homes have been blighted for three years, whilst they waited for disputes with UK Coal to be resolved over whether subsidence had been caused by mining or was a pre-existing condition.  The residents said that some of the houses are very old and sorting out the repairs to them was urgent.  Some of the repairs will cost tens of thousands of pounds.  In the meantime people could not sell or move home.

John Lloyd told the residents the company had not had the level of problems they encountered in Corley Moor in other parts of the country. To avoid problems in the future, following representations from Mike O'Brien MP, UK Coal had agreed to carry out surveys before the mine was extended under other houses in the area.  Indeed they had asked 50 local people in recent weeks if they wanted a pre-existing survey but only one of them had taken it up.

Mike O'Brien said:  "I am pleased UK Coal has agreed to fund pre-mining surveys.  It is important people should take this up to avoid disputes later on about what subsidence was pre-existing and what was caused by the mine.  That will enable compensation to be paid much more quickly in future.  I would strongly advise anyone who is alerted that mining may take place near their home to ensure an early survey is done".

The MP pointed out that the welcome concession by UK Coal would not help people who had already been affected by subsidence like these Corley Moor residents.  He urged the company to find a way of resolving disputes by discussion between the agent for the local residents, Mr Paul Brown of Paxton Brown and UK Coal's representative.  John Lloyd agreed to go away and consider how best to sort out the problems and speed up the process.  He said he would write to Mike O'Brien with his conclusions shortly.

Local residents made very clear their frustration and anger and asked the UK Coal Chief Executive to see the state of some of the houses himself.  He agreed to do so and later joined Mike O'Brien to look at the cracks in walls and floors in a couple of homes which had resulted from the mining taking place about half a mile below ground.

Mike O'Brien said:  "We were pleased John Lloyd had come to the meeting and faced the residents.  They had wanted to meet with him for a long time.  It ended up a constructive meeting and I hope UK Coal will now make an effort to resolve these issues.  There was a concern that their approach had become legalistic and adversarial.  People only wanted to be paid their due and to get their home back to how it was before.  The law requires UK Coal to pay compensation.  The main issue was the delay in doing it.  I am glad John Lloyd looked at a couple of the houses that have been affected.  We must now await his letter on how things can be speeded up".