Coalfield Communities Debate

I responded to an excellent debate on Coalfield communities in Parliament this week.

Many industrial communities have links to coal including Oldham where over 150 colliery’s are reported to have been in operation to power the mills and factories which made the town an industrial giant through the 19th and 20th century. Without the work of the colliers there wouldn’t have been the energy to power the Industrial Revolution, and Oldham and large parts of the industrial North would not exist in its current form, our own town taking it’s place as King of Cotton.

You’ll likely know the most local to you, they were fairly plentiful across Chadderton, Royton and Oldham in Hollinwood and Bardsley.

Clearly the use of coal for power and home heating diminished, but I still have memories having it delivered and going to the coal yard at Hunt Lane in Chadderton in the 1990’s.

The debate was focused on the communities where mining was the foundation industry in the main and huge impact once they closed from the mid 1980’s onwards.

𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙪𝙩, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙬𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙪𝙥 𝙖𝙛𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡.

Today the social and economic scars are still visible and MPs are rightly demanding better planned long term investment.

In the end it should go hand in hand with devolution where power, investment and impact is felt locally, ending the wasteful bidding wars for limited pots of money and false promises of levelling up.