 Len Tingle getting just a flavour of life below... |
Life underground in the coal mines is that much safer with the Mines Rescue Service - should there be a crisis at the face. But now, there is a crisis that the service itself is having to tackle...
It is hot, dark and extremely dangerous.
This is the aftermath of an explosion deep underground in a coal mine.
It takes a brave and well trained team of professionals to take on the job of reaching any survivors.
For the past 95 years that has been the task of the Mines Rescue Service.
Now, the service faces a crisis of its own. It is rapidly running out of money.
At its headquarters in Mansfield, the modern day service trains in a specially built underground gallery.
Its methods and equipment are the envy of search and rescue operations around the world.
In fact, it has boosted its income in recent years by putting on training courses.
However, that extra cash is still not enough.
This year it will plunge into the red by around �300,000.
The problem is that the UK coal industry, which pays for the service, has shrunk dramatically and as a result is unable to fully fund the rescue teams.
 Without the cash soon, this vital service may not survive |
Levy
A formula was set up a decade ago when the coal mines were sold off to private companies by the Government.
They pay a levy of 16 pence on every ton of coal mined.
However, many of the pits have now closed and production has dropped dramatically.
The costs of the Mines Rescue Service have also fallen, but nowhere near as far.
It has a legal obligation to maintain a level of operational readiness which will allow it to reach the remaining deep pits, should there be an incident.
Ready - 24/7
This means it has to have four emergency stations manned around the clock including one in Yorkshire and another in Derbyshire.
At the moment, the Rescue Service is balancing its books by using cash it has received from selling off some of the property it no longer needs to meet the challenge of a smaller mining industry.
It is a position that senior figures in the service say is unsustainable.
Now there are calls, backed by MPs from the mining community, for the Government to fill the finance gap.
Ironically, the crisis has emerged as the cameras of the Politics Show are invited to Barnsley for the National Union of Mineworkers' first Memorial Day for the thousands of miners who have died underground over the years.
At the same time, a special exhibition at the National Mining Museum near Wakefield, catalogues the seemingly endless list of disasters which has ensured that mining communities are never far from tragedy.
Memories never fade.
 So as to remind us of the bravery of so many coalminers |
Flowers are still to be seen on a memorial at the end of a tunnel which emerges in woods near the village of Silkstone in South Yorkshire.
It was here that 26 miners were drowned as they attempted to escape from flood water in the nearby Huskars Colliery.
All this happened on July 4th,1838 and the "miners" were all little girls and boys who were then allowed to work in the pit.
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