Aberfan - lessons 52 years on

The Aberfan Disaster

It is 52 years today since 144 people, mostly junior school children, were killed at Aberfan. The children were aged between 7 and 10, and would have been 59 to 62 years old now. Several teachers died too, some heroically trying to save their young charges.

The response by all official bodies is a textbook example of how not to handle such a disaster, and was riddled with penny-pinching, lies, and people watching their own backs.

The state-owned National Coal Board (NCB) and the UK Treasury both refused to accept full financial responsibility for making the village safe. Consequently the Disaster Fund was forced to contribute £150,000 (£2,657,000 today) for the removal of the remaining tips overlooking the village.

Despite the outrage of donors, villagers and the local MP, it was not until 1997 that this money was repaid to the fund - without a single penny to cover lost interest. It was another 10 years before the Welsh government paid £2 million in 2007 to cover the interest.

Even though the inquiry report blamed the NCB for the disaster, not one person received the slightest punishment for the 144 deaths. The NCB boss offered his resignation but this was a sham as he'd already been secretly told that his job was safe.

A major injustice was the coroner's returning of a blanket verdict of accidental death, almost as though it had been a natural disaster. It was entirely man-made, and entirely preventable.

Conclusion: the Establishment covering its own back is scarcely news. Since Aberfan, we have had ordinary people determinedly campaigning for justice against official cover-ups, such as Hillsborough, Omagh and the Birmingham pub bombings. Let's hope Grenfell survivors don't have to battle for decades to obtain justice.

Neville Grundy

Chair, ARMS Mersey