Crisis meeting to help miners
An emergency task force held a crisis meeting last night in a bid to help the shattered Ellington Colliery community get back on its feet.
It is feared the closure of the North-East's last remaining deep pit early next month could leave the Northumberland town facing devastation. But last night a multi-agency group comprising government and local council bodies said steps were already underway to help regenerate the area.
One NorthEast chief executive Alan Clarke, who chaired the meeting at Morpeth's County Hall, said immediate action to help had already begun.
"The main issue we have to deal with is helping the miners, their families and the community come back from this and look towards the future," he said.
The Task Group, set up by Northumberland County Council within 24 hours of the closure being announced, arranged for Jobcentre Plus to visit the colliery.
The government-employment specialists will be on hand on Monday to discuss job opportunities and training programmes with those facing redundancy.
They will also offer a skills analysis to all the miners which will aim to create a tailor-made strategy to maximise their chances of finding work. Mr Clarke added: "Our immediate attention is on how we can help now and the news that employment specialists are setting up a job shop at the colliery is a very important start."
The group also included Wansbeck MP Denis Murphy, the Northumberland Strategic Partnership, the Learning and Skills Council and the National Union of Mineworkers. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust also lent their support to the regeneration effort.
But Northumberland County Council leader Mike Davey said that while North-East employers had already made informal offers to take on labour, the miners should not get their hopes up.
"There are employers who have expressed an interest, but I don't want to give the impression there's a queue. It's more like three of four jobs, here and there. I don't want hopes to be dashed again."
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