Abandoned opencast mine restoration 'completed' as East Ayrshire Council have to stump up £3 million for work

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The restoration of the abandoned opencast mines at Garleffan and Grievehill, near New Cumnock, has been completed.East Ayrshire Council had to stump up £3m due to the failure to secure a sufficient 'restoration bond' which would have covered the clean up the site.This followed the collapse of opencast operators around 2013/14, resulting in the loss of £132m in clean up funds for the areas opencast operations and the firing of the then head of planning at EAC.Assessors had said that it would cost close to £9m to restore both sites.

But after the operators collapsed, it was revealed the council only secured £1m.As well as EAC, the Scottish Government provided £1m, with a further £1m in restoration bonds making up the remainder, a total of £5m.The opencast mining took place at the site from 1998 until 2013 when operators Aardvark TMC went into liquidation and the sites were left in a 'substantially unrestored state'.A company, Mines Restoration Gareleffan Grievehill Limited (MRGGL), was subsequently set up, supported by the Scottish Government.MRGGL acquired the site along with East Ayrshire Council which took over parts of the site which were 'disclaimed' and became ownerless after liquidation.In a report published last week, planners stated: "Due to various factors, the restoration bond value did not meet the restoration costs for the site."Independent engineers assessed the topographical data and estimated a cost of approximately £1.1 million for Garleffan and £7.7 million for Grievehill to restore the sites in accordance with the approved planning permissions.""The restoration works within the enforcement notice were financed using a combination of council funds (£3million), Scottish Government funds dedicated to the