"I can't believe we're doing this again," Chris Austin said, looking into the distance. "We'd literally just closed our residents' group's bank account. You have to work so hard just to get the smallest win."
We're standing just a few hundred metres from Ffos-y-Fran near Merthyr Tydfil, the UK's largest opencast coal mine. In the distance mountain land stretches across the horizon, covered by swathes of jet-black coal. On the left side of the mine, just next to Dowlais, a couple of large trucks slowly make their way across.
It's a sight which has become painfully familiar to those living in the area, for whom the mine has been a continual source of frustration. Part of a long-running plan to reclaim areas of land to the east of Merthyr Tydfil, coal has been extracted from Ffos-y-Fran and was due to stop from September 6 this year. But Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, which owns the site, has applied to Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to extend this for another nine months.
