MAY I wish Gerald Haynes a long and active retirement, the new operators of Monument Colliery (Hayners Bailey) every success with their new venture, and at the same time take the opportunity to urge the domestic coal users of this area to support free mining by burning more Forest coal wherever possible.
Although at the moment this mine is licensed, these lads are freeminers and it is hoped that before too long the Coal Authority will come to understand that their retention of this and many other gales inherited from British Coal is entirely untenable and that they will hand them back into the free mining systems where they now morally and in many cases legally belong. – Mike Jones, freeminer, Redbrook.