Opencast mining provides work and fuel but the end result is a major impact on the landscape

Dixon said that promises were “being widely broken” and accused the Government of “working to let the industry off the hook”.

He added: “These companies have made large profits at the expense of the environment and local businesses. Instead of trying to prop up an ailing industry, the Government needs to guarantee that overdue restoration work will get underway.

“The Scottish Government urgently needs to reassure communities and planning authorities that no developer will ever be allowed to simply walk away from their obligations to clean up after themselves.”

Campaign group Coal Action Scotland (CAS) has evidence that the restoration of at least a dozen old opencast mines in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Midlothian has already been delayed or abandoned. The restoration of the Chalmerston mine in East Ayrshire, where production ended in 1998, is now 14 years overdue, the group says.

Oliver Munion of CAS accused the Government and industry of holding talks “behind closed doors” without consulting those most affected. “Our fear is that communities across Scotland are being sold out by the Scottish Government which seems to be preparing to allow the industry to break the promises it made to clean up the enormous mess it has made,” he said.

Rural communities were being sold out to protect private industry, he claimed. “Many Scottish Coal sites are woefully behind in their restoration, with some lying unrestored for 10 years or more. Why should they be given support to open new mines when they’ve broken so many promises already?”

Labour’s shadow environment