Fife Council is continuing to push for progress on the restoration of open cast coal mines across Fife.

Following a meeting with the Scottish Coal Industry Task Force earlier this week, Council Leader Alex Rowley said he is determined that the council continue to work alongside its partners in order to progress on the sites in question.

There are five open cast mine sites where issues, including flooding, are causing concern.

Scottish Coal had pledged that work would recommence at the Blairhouse mine in March 2014 following a period of site mothballing, but Fife Council is now pushing for an earlier start for the restoration work in order to address aspects of flooding and to ensure the site is complete as soon as possible.

At Muirdean, the former ATH Resources site, the pumping of water is continuing at a cost of £30,000 a week. The Scottish Mines Restoration Trust has offered £60,000 to help with the costs and talks are continuing. Moves to restore the site are also progressing.

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Elsewhere, work is continuing at St Ninians, near Kelty, where a majority of the site has been taken over by mining company Hargreaves. However, the company is not responsible for the open cast element of the site. It is being placed into the ownership of a HIVECO. Discussions are continuing on future restoration and the proposed Land Art project.

The local authority's West Fife Planning Committee is also expected to discuss an application from Hargreaves on future mining activity at Loch Fitty, while controls on water levels are still in place at Westfield.

Councillor Rowley said: "There is a lot of local concern around the future of various open cast coal sites in Fife and a real loss of confidence in the coal industry since the collapse of Scottish Coal and ATH Resources.

"I want to reassure residents that we're doing everything we can to help address concerns around individual sites and make it very clear that we will continue to demand assurances from the industry that proper restoration will be carried out.

"There is no room for complacency around these issues. Our position on any future applications for mining in Fife is very clear in that we will continue to demand assurances from developers on restoration of sites and we have made clear that we would expect restoration bonds to be put in place as an insurance policy to protect the local environment and local communities. Our communities deserve no less."

(JP/CD)