UK Coal confirm Kellingley Colliery redundancy dates

UK Coal, the owner of Kellingley Colliery, has announced details surrounding the foreclosure of the North Yorkshire mine.

On Saturday, around 205 employees will be informed about their redundancy and then will be made redundant by the end of July.

Kellingley is currently being operated with approximately 600 staff, so there will be about 400 employees working at the pit until it closes on 10th December.

Last September, UK Coal secured a £20m deal to carry out a managed closure of Kellingley Colliery by the end of this year.

As part of the deal, the government loaned £4m along with capital from private investors, which has assisted in the company winding down operations at Kellingley near Pontefract and at Thorseby in Nottinghamshire.

Chris Kitchen, the general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)told ITV: “Under the UK Coal closure plan that the Government is helping us fund, Thoresby will cease production at the end of June beginning of July. Then the shafts will be filled in and another one bites the dust.”