Government response to latest Church proposals awaited

Walker urged by Churches to take new coal initiative
by Jack O'Sullivan CHURCH LEADERS are this week anxiously awaiting response from the Government,
coal board and miners' union to the latest set of Church
proposals for bringing a solution to the ten month old coal dispute.
Three concrete proposals have been set out in a letter from the British Council of Churches to Mr Peter Walker, the Energy Secretary. It suggests firstly, that "regional working parties" should be set up to establish the "real cost of coal" in each and every pit. Secondly, the Churchmen call for "an independent all-party review" of the coal industry, taking into account Britain's other sources of energy.
Finally, the Government is urged to "increase the resources already made available to stimulate new industries in mining area".
The signatories of the letter are at pains to emphasise that they are not "arbitrators". They stress to Mr Walker that "only a negotiated settlement can restore and maintain those good relations at all levels which have previously characterised the industry and upon which it depends."
Although the initiative has not been officially. endorsed by the Catholic bishops, the suggestions were "in general accord with the views of the Catholic bishops as expressed in the statement at the end of their November meeting", said Nicholas Coote. assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, this week.
The latest round of proposals also represents the culmination of a flurry of separate ecumenical initiatives by Welsh, Scottish and English Church leaders who arc concerned to break the deadlock between the estranged parties.
The letter was drafted during a meeting last week of the executive committee of the British Council of Churches, which represents 28 Protestant denominations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Catholic officials were being kept abreast of events by the Catholic observer at the BCC meeting, Canon Dennis Corbishley, Secretary of the Commission for Christian Unity.
This latest statement has considerably toned down some of the demands outlined by Welsh Church leaders in a letter sent to the Prime Minister last month — proposals endorsed by the national executive of the National Union of Mineworkers last week in Sheffield.
There is no reference to the need to consider, as the Welsh Church leaders demanded, "a long-term energy policy which is not subject to the vagaries of an undisciplined free market system." Rather, the BCC letter merely asks for "an independent all-party review body to examine the future of the coal industry in the context of a national energy policy taking into account gas, oil and nuclear energy," Nicholas Coote regarded even this proposal as still being controversial. He expressed fears that an elected government would not be prepared to set up such a body, the decisions of which it would have to accept. But he added that the establishment of the "real cost of coal" was a "very sensible idea", resolving one source of time consuming debate.
He strongly supported the BCC's plan for increased regional aid on the same lines as the support given to steel producing communities, following closure of mills.
Reaction from the National Coal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers has been muted. Attention has shifted this week away from reopening negotiations and has focused on the battle within the NUM over the possible ousting of the Nottinghamshire miners from the national union.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister was only prepared to say that Mrs Thatcher had received the letter from the Welsh Church leaders and would "in due course" be replying. Equally, the Department of Energy was not prepared to commit itself over the latest letter from the BCC.