One of my abiding memories of the early days of the Labour Government was the visit to Dover and Deal of John Prescott and his Coalfield Task Force.

We did a tour of the dilapidated pit sites, met with local stakeholders and talked to people who had been left abandoned after the Tories shut down all the pits in the East Kent Coalfield.

I made submissions to the Taskforce on behalf of my constituents and I’ve spent more than my fair share of time lobbying Ministers for regeneration funds in the meantime.

Following that visit and similar visits all over the country, the Government has invested £1.5 billion into initiatives to transform former coalfield communities, with almost 150,000 people getting new jobs or training, and land the size of 4,500 football pitches brought back into use - some of it having previously been among the most contaminated sites in Europe.

Despite this, Labour’s Housing Minister John Healey has now said more will be done to continue reviving communities that are still faced with long-term worklessness and poverty, and to consider how regeneration can be more effectively driven forward.

My friend, Michael Clapham (the MP for Barnsley) will chair the Review Board and it will include senior members of the Industrial Communities Alliance (ICA), the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, the Coalfields Enterprise Fund and the Communities and Local Government Department. Michael is a former miner himself and he’s been a great campaigner for former miners and their communities.

The Coalfield Regeneration Review will check the investment we've put in and the schemes we've set up are doing everything they can for people across the country who were hardest hit by the pit closures. The Review will look at what schemes are working well, what needs to be improved and how we can get the best value for the public money that the Government invests.

It takes a long time to deliver change on this scale. The collapse of the coal industry saw a quarter of men across the coalfields areas lose their jobs and nearly half of all ex-miners suffered long-term illness and injury. That's why we won’t give up on these communities and we have decided to continue to make sure our investment brings new jobs and hope where it’s needed.

I’m delighted that, despite the difficult financial climate, our Government’s has restated its commitment to the economic and social regeneration of former coalfield communities. Funding over the last decade has had a major impact but the Review will consider the delivery of the initiatives, in particular how agencies could work better together to maximise the benefit of Regeneration funding in coalfield communities.

One of the Taskforce’s biggest investments was the £18.8million funding to regenerate Betteshanger, creating a business park and a 200 acre nature reserve with leisure facilities, a visitor’s centre, sculpture park and cycling tracks.

We now call it Fowlmead Countryside Park and last weekend over 400 of us assembled there to run the fun run mile for Comic Relief.

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010