Selby mines to shut with loss of over 2,000 jobs

Coal miners were told to expect jobs for life 20 years ago when they moved from Yorkshire's worn-out old pits to Selby, the nation's biggest colliery complex.

But after weeks of rumour, that expectation was finally quashed yesterday as UK Coal, the mine's owner, announced that Selby would be following the nearby Prince of Wales pit, the nation's oldest, to closure. More than 2,000 people are to lose their jobs.

Selby, once home to some of Europe's most modern pit machinery, was heralded as a new era of profitable mining. But a host of geological faults, which were undetected during seismological surveys, have proved Selby's undoing.

Coal seams that were anticipated to be 250 metres wide turned out to be just 65 metres wide, forcing the closure of two of the five mines in the last five years. This left the remaining three to shoulder the £30m annual fixed costs.

Though Selby's most profitable pit, at Wistow, makes £1.2m profit a year, the complex has lost £107m over the last three years – £35m last year alone – while output has dwindled almost as fast as the price of coal.

The complex is to close in spring 2004. To the frustration of miners, the unmined coal left behind would have sustained another 15 years of work.

"When I came here 16 years ago they said 'you'll have a job for life'," said Stephen Briggs, a 51-year-old father-of-three who will be one of the first laid off at Wistow. "The writing's been on the wall at our management meetings for six months," he added before heading out to the face yesterday.

The Government has offered £10m in grant aid but with further mine closures it is difficult to envisage new jobs for much of a redundant workforce whose average age is around 45.

The miners will have their work cut out just to preserve work at Selby until 2004. At a meeting with unions yesterday, Alec Galloway, UK Coal's managing director of deep mines, said: "Selby must remain cash positive throughout the closure programme or we can't make it last that long."