On 24 May, the East Ayrshire Council Cabinet met to discuss an initial report into the state of the opencast coal mining industry. The report, published on 23 May by the Council, highlights publicly for the first time the scale of failings on the part of Scottish Coal and ATH Resources in fulfilling their obligations both to restore sites but also to adhere to the planning conditions imposed by the Council. The report is also a damning indictment of the local authority’s failure to adequately enforce and monitor the conditions it imposed.
See http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/2013/05/the-restoration-bombshell-has-finally-been-dropped/.