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  Paul
  Yes I am the same Jim Davies, the reason that I have not contributed is that I have not seen anything that required my input.
  I do log on most days, I was a member of the forum "in the old days" when I owned a business in Dover and was a committee of Town Centre Management.
  In answer to the coal subject we have moved on since the last coal mine was opened in Kent in 1924. You wont even find children or ponies working down UK mines.
  The problem is that people still think in the past with vast spoil heaps and buildings just thrown up with the old fashioned headgear's.
  Modern buildings would not be out of place in the industrial parks that are springing up in most areas.
  Systems are in place to what we call "stow packing" that is to say the spoil is blasted into the area that the coal has been extracted from, thus no need for ugly slag heaps.
  In some cases the spoil us used for land reclamation.
  When Betteshanger closed in 1989 the mine was highly mechanised with computers controlling: ventilation, pumps, conveyors and coal winding.
  Opencast mining is out of the question as Kent is a "concealed coalfield" that is to say that the coal measures are between 1,000 to 3,000ft.

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