Dear all,

Firstly, thank you for support our ex-miners and their families in their campaign for pension’s justice.  

I am writing to you to flag up the fact that the Independent Group on Nottinghamshire County Council will be putting a motion to the Council supporting the campaign to implement the recommendations of the BEIS Select Committee and put right the ‘historical injustice’ over mineworker’s pensions.  The motion will be moved by the Ashfield Independent leader of Ashfield District Council - Councillor Jason Zadrozny and Seconded by Councillor Daniel Williamson.

The motion will be debated this Thursday (22ndJuly) at approximately 1.30pm.  Due to coronavirus regulations, access to the public gallery will be limited.

We’d like to thank Charles Chiverton, Mick Newton and Tony Delahunty (from Mansfield 103.2FM) for helping us put this together. It will be broadcast live athttps://www.youtube.com/user/nottscc which will shared widely. 

There are a few things you can do to help. 

1. If you live in Nottinghamshire – you can contact your County Councillor.  To find out who it is – just follow this linkhttps://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors/contact-a-councillorput in your post code in and you’ll find your County Councillor’s email address and other contact details.  Please ask them to vote for MOTION 2 this Thursday and explain your reasons.

2. If you live outside of Nottinghamshire, then please email the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council – Ben Bradley MP -cllr.ben.bradley@nottscc.gov.uk to ask him to support the motion.

3. Share the local petition with friends by email or your Facebook page and groups  -https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-pensions-justice-for-our-miners?source_location=topic_page
 
We’ve all seen the way that public pressure impacts decisions made by this Conservative Government – whether this be on nurses’ pay, social care, feeding starving children during the school holidays or simple things like having to obey the rules they set to self isolate.

Please add to the pressure we are putting on councillors and MPs in places like Nottinghamshire.  Many of them owe their seats to borrowed votes from ex-miners and their families based on a false promise.

Let’s do our bit to remind them of this.  Our miners and their families shouldn’t be shafted again!

Dave Hennigan on behalf of Councillors Jason Zadrozny and Daniel Williamson. 

Ashfield Independent councillors and members of the Independent Group on Nottinghamshire County Council.  
 
THE MOTION IN FULL:

Nottinghamshire County Council notes the historical contribution that mining has played in our County. 

Nottinghamshire was a major supplier of coal for industry and home consumption, particularly during the 19th and 20th century. At one time, Nottinghamshire, with 40,000 miners was one of the most successful coalfields in Europe.

This Council further notes that when the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, there was 49 collieries in Nottinghamshire.  There are now none.

Nottinghamshire County Council owes our miners a debt of gratitude which should be reflected in any decision that this Council makes. Our miners exposed themselves to many harmful agents - this put them and their families at risk of developing skin and lung conditions.

This council welcomes the conclusions of the House of Commons' Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee (BEIS) on the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme on 29 April 2020. This recommended that ministers tackle "historical injustice" in the scheme and to transfer £1.2 billion to the pension's fund.

This Council also notes the Government have also made £4.2 billion from the Mineworker's Pension Scheme - £2 billion over the original estimate. This is without paying a penny into the Mineworker's Pension Scheme.

This Council notes with regret the response from the Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Chanon 28 June 2021 which rejected the recommendations of MPs on this Select Committee.  This will cost every miner who mined in Nottinghamshire £728 a year.

We therefore ask for a letter to be sent from the leaders of the 3 groups on Nottinghamshire County Council to all Nottinghamshire's Members of Parliament and to the Chancellor of the Exchequer - The Rt. Hon. Rishi Sunak MP stating that Nottinghamshire County Council believes that:

1.       The Government should implement immediately the full findings and conclusions of the BEIS Select Committee's investigation into the Mineworker's Pension Scheme.

2.       That the Government should not be in the business of making money from the Mineworker's Pension Scheme and should now hand back the £1.2 billion from the investment reserve fund to the miners and their families.

3.       That Government should now seek to negotiate a fairer arrangement  to benefit the miners and should not be seen to profiteering and should only take money from the scheme if it falls into deficit and then only at 50%

Just a reminder of a link to share https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-pensions-justice-for-our-miners