CARMARTHENSHIRE county council will contribute £6,500 towards a Welsh national mining memorial.

Executive Board members have agreed to donate the funds to the Aber Valley Heritage Group, which is establishing the memorial to remember those that have lost their lives in mining disasters.

The memorial will be located at the site of the former Universal Senghennydd Colliery, Caerphilly, where 440 men and boys were killed in the biggest mining disaster in British history.

Research has identified 13 disasters in Carmarthenshire in which five or more miners were killed – the largest, at Pontyberem Colliery in 1855 saw 26 men lose their lives, and the most recent, at Cynheidre Colliery in 1971, saw six killed.

"Whilst the Executive Board strongly supports the creation of the memorial, members have agreed to write to the Heritage Group to request that every miner who has lost his life on the coalfield is remembered, and not just those that died in disasters which claimed five or more lives," said a spokeswoman.

Council leader, Cllr Kevin Madge, said: “Both my grandfathers were miners so this is close to my heart, and I strongly support this.

“But I would like the memorial to include all those who died – one person is still a life and a sacrifice.”

Cllr Jeff Edmunds, Executive Board Member for Resources – and a former miner himself - added: “Our heritage and history goes back to mining, and the national memorial is something that Carmarthenshire should support.”

At present, there is no national memorial to those that have died on Welsh coalfields.

The Heritage Group’s intention is to create what they describe as a ‘Pathway to Memory’ on which the individual colliery, date of the disaster, and numbers killed will be recorded on a paving slab.

Every local authority in Wales has been invited to make a contribution.