WALES’ First Minister, Carwyn Jones, has said that the damage and clean-up costs left in the wake of unrestored opencast sites "adds weight" to calls for a moratorium on opencast mining in Wales.

He was responding to a question from Torfaen’s Assembly Member, Lynne Neagle, who has previously called for a halt in current and future opencast applications to allow the Welsh Government to carry out a strategic review into the industry.

Alongside local residents and campaigners, mine operator, Glamorgan Power, recently lodged an application to extract 256,000 tonnes of coal from a site on Varteg Hill, with the proposed site boundary less than 100m from adjacent homes and nearby Ysgol Bryn Onnen.

Similar plans were rejected by Torfaen Council in 2010, and then by the Welsh Government in late 2013 after the developer appealed, the application was ‘called in’ and a full planning inquiry held.

The opencast industry has been in the spotlight recently, after a number of politicians – including the First Minister – called on operator, Celtic Energy, to fulfil its obligation to restore sites at Margam and East Pit.

Of the estimated £150 million needed to clean up both sites, only £10 million has been set aside.

Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, Lynne Neagle said: "A moratorium would help my constituents in Varteg, who yet again are left fighting an application that is in clear breach of MTAN 2 planning guidance."

Responding, First Minister, Carwyn Jones said: “Well, I say to the Member that what has happened with regard to East Pit and with Parc Slip adds weight to her argument. I’ll take it no further than that at this stage.

“We cannot have a situation, clearly, where we have a number of opencast sites in the future that cannot be restored because there is no money to restore them.”