There does appear to be something in the water in BVI as I know another company who previously owned this site has sold it’s opencast mining interests to companies there – all named after trees.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-26245865

• Twitter: @georgemonbiot. A fully referenced version of this article can be found at Monbiot.com – Article published I believe in The Guardian

I quote a passage from one of the articles

In 2010 Celtic Energy sold the land rights, and the liabilities, at East Pit, Margam and two other mines, to a company in the British Virgin Islands called Oak Regeneration, for £1 a mine. Oak Regeneration then passed the liabilities to Pine Regeneration, Beech Regeneration and Ash Regeneration, none of which appear to have the assets required for restoration. Five senior executives at Celtic Energy walked away with benefits worth more than £10m

Thank you, Kelly. I’d be grateful for any info you can find.

There has been some activity on Twitter today from a couple of tweeters connected with the football club, alerting others to certain individuals being connected with both the club and the ski slope. Perhaps an example of how social media is taking over from traditional outlets.

But to be honest no one knows much about this in Merthyr as hardly anyone reads the Western Mail or the Merthyr Express anymore and if they did the reaction would be great more zero hours jobs (that’s not sarcasm by the way) Valleys folk expectations are so low, this type of developments excites them.

And given that the plans are at so early a stage, is Sion Barry’s article kite flying to see what the reaction would be to building on unsafe land with mine shafts etc?

Talking of Ski Slopes, an artificial Ski Slope was built in Pentrebach, not far from the Hoover Factory years ago and was a big flop, why do the new developers think this will be any more successful?

Sadly Merthyr doesn’t need more of this, there’s already a monstrosity being built with Trago Mills from a bunged land deal from 20 odd years ago. Trago Mills is the Cornish retailer, but its essentially a giant pound shop, with craft tat and kids rides. It’ll kill the new retail parks dead and the town centre probably as well as create massive traffic problems on the A470 and around the town, but the local Independents who now run the Council have given it their blessing.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/28/big-coal-keep-it-in-the-ground-energy-opencast-mines

Aristocracy are like anyone… you do have good ones and bad ones. Just like you have good and bad people. What I don’t approve of is that the English supplanted the Welsh more than anything. I think we all try to keep what we have… and unless we’re going to be like Soviet Russia where everyone had the same stuff and there was little incentive to go into more difficult professions (look at it this way… not everyone can be a Doctor). The system is far from perfect but there will always be a pyramid and always people on the bottom. There will always be poverty. But I don’t think those aristocratic families will be rich forever… as I said about the Welsh families before them, they got replaced… as much as there is upward mobility there’s also downward mobility.

The wheel keeps spinning.

I see the point you’re making, but in the case you’re referring to the principals were known.

With the Merthyr ski slope we don’t know who’s behind it. If it’s Large, then why does he need this convoluted trail to hide the ultimate owners? The fact there is this convoluted trail suggests Large may simply be a front man.

What this about, I wonder?