A LABOUR politician is to take his campaign to breathe new life into Fife’s coal mining industry to today’s full council meeting in Glenrothes.

Bobby Clelland, (pictured) who represents West Fife and the coastal villages, wants to see a working party set up to examine ways of accessing the region’s coal reserves.

Councillor Clelland believes rising fuel prices and, more importantly, the advent of clean coal technology could lead to a revival of Fife’s mining fortunes.

The last deep mine at Longannet, near Kincardine on the border with Clackmannanshire, closed in 2002 with the loss of more than 400 jobs.

The only coal mined in Fife now is from opencast sites, such as St Ninian’s near Kelty.

Some people believe Longannet could still be reopened, in spite of devastating flooding, and other seams of coal in the area recovered.

Mr Clelland, a former miner, said, “We have seen the development of some exciting new approaches to accessing sources of energy, such as methane extraction from the coal under the Forth.

“We have also witnessed a major investment in new technology at Longannet Power Station that means it is much cleaner to burn coal to create power. I now want us in partnership with Scottish Coal to explore the options for accessing the coal seams within west Fife around Comrie and Bogside.”

He added, “If you ask former miners, they will tell you that there is still a lot of coal under the ground in west Fife. With the support of new technology it is within our grasp to drive a mine and access that coal.”

Mr Clelland this week met NUM President Nicky Wilson and retired miners leader Archie Campbell in Culross to discuss the options.

Mr Wilson said, “The cost of coal has gone from £30 a tonne in 2000 to £128 a tonne in January of this year.

“As global demand and competition for resources rises the cost will rise. More importantly, the security and continuity of supply to the UK becomes less reliable.

“This means that it is now financially viable to recover the reserves which can be accessed from Fife.”

He said the NUM backed Mr Clelland’s proposal and that the union would work with the council to bring “all partners to the table to explore all the options.”

Mr Clelland plans to put forward a motion at today’s meeting calling for the establishment of the working group.

* In March of this year the Scottish Government said the cost of re-opening Longannet colliery would be “prohibitive”.

However, it has not ruled out carrying out a feasibility study into reinstating Scotland’s last deep mine.

A campaign has been running for some time to get the mine running again, but others, including the mine’s owners, the Scottish Resources Group, say the effects of flooding would make it impossible.

A spokesman for SRG said “It would cost 40 to 50 million to take the water out, but because we don’t know exactly where the water came from we don’t know how easy it would be to keep the water out.

“We’re probably talking about two times that cost to keep the water out of the mine.

“It would only happen if there was enough coal there and the government was able to give them a long-term signal that coal would still be on the agenda in years to come.

“I don’t think anybody could do that because the energy market is so hard to predict.”

Among those in favour of reopening are councillors, businesses and the Scottish Mineworkers’ Consortium.

A delegation including Fife councillors Bill Walker, Willie Ferguson and Ian Chisholm, met Scottish Energy Minister Jim Mather earlier this year to discuss the possibility.

Mr Mather said the suggestion was compatible with the Government’s desire to secure the country’s energy supplies.

Clean coal technology and carbon capture, which would effectively see harmful emissions from coal-fired power stations buried underground, could hold the key.

In his first official engagement as First Minister in May of last year Alex Salmond announced a feasibility study would be carried out into clean coal technology.

If it proves viable it could be up and running at Longannet and Cockenzie power stations by 2012.

Deep-mined Scottish coal has always had a high sulphur content which contributed to its downfall. European rules banned using high-sulphur coal in power stations, but clean-coal technology, which extracts 90% of the sulphur, could make it viable again.

The clean-coal technology also cuts carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth.

Mr Salmond said at the time, “If you can use clean-coal technology, coal has a dynamic future.”