South Yorkshire Times, September 6th, 1969.

£2,500,000 Manvers Plan Will Be Boost To Three Area Collieries.

The future of the Barnburgh Main, Wath Main and Kilnhurst Collieries has been ensured this week by the applicaton by the N.C.B. to Manvers by-products plant, at Wath, and the development at the plant could also have the effect of stabilising the rates in the Wath urban district.

The plans for the £2,500,000 scheme at Manvers were announced by the Lord Robens when he visited the plant in February this year, and he said he was looking into the possibilities of spending the money on the plant and the and the three collieries supplying the coal to the plant.

The Board have now made application to Wath Urban Council for approval to the erection of a further 25 ovens at the plant, and while this will not provide any additional employment in the area, it will guarantee  the future of the three collieries who provide the plant with Coal.

New Technique.

A new technique of blending coals has been pioneered at Manvers to provide a suitable coke to be used at the plant. This puts them ahead in the field and they are aiming at the export market and an anticipated shortage of coking Coal.

Australia and the U.S.A are the main producers of this type of Coal, but they are now finding it more difficult and expensive to produce, said a Board spokesman this week.

He added hat although planning application had been made to the Council there were still many details to be planned for the five year programme, which was to be phased so that production could continue while the work was being carried out.

Clerk to Wath United Urban Council, Mr. R. H. Fish, said this week that while the development was good news for the mining community the Council were naturally concerned about the possibilities of pollution in the air.

“If the N.C.B. are going to replace some ovens and put new ones in then we hope the first instance that they will be efficient and that both smell and smoke nuisance will be either nil or the absolute minimum. This aspect comes under the control of the Alkali Inspector, and the only way we can check it is during the planning stages,” he said.