ACTIVIST lawyers are to support a legal challenge to close down, with immediate effect, an illegal open-cast coalmine in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

The non-profit Good Law Project is working with the campaign group Coal Action Network and local residents to get the Ffos-y-Fran coalmine shut down.

In September 2022, planning permission for the mine ended. However, the company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, continues to extract coal illegally.