End of an era as Britain’s last coal-fired power plant shuts down

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station once employed 3,000 staff, but the workforce has dwindled to just 170 as electricity generation was wound down. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Britain’s only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years.

The power plant will come to the end of its life in line with the government’s world-leading policy to phase out coal power which was first signalled almost a decade ago.