A SENIOR Gwent councillor who was a miner for 36 years has hit out over the scheme to compensate former pitmen with chest diseases.

Councillor Allan Pritchard, deputy leader of Caerphilly council, accused the government of using spin where figures regarding payments to ex-miners were concerned.

"If you believe the spin, then everything would appear to be fine, but the reality of the situation is that things are far from being right," said Plaid Cymru Councillor Pritchard, who was also a mining official.

"The government is bandying about huge figures.

"Yet they have neglected to tell us that many of the initial compensation offers that are currently being made to miners across South Wales fall woefully short of the sums that these men deserve and need.

"In fact, some of the offers presently made to former miners are downright insulting."

The Argus has been campaigning for nearly three years for compensation payments to be speeded up to ex-miners with chest diseases, or their families.

The latest figures released by the government show that Gwent ex-miners with chest diseases have been paid £25,210,552 - and Energy Minister Brian Wilson said he was on track to fulfil a commitment to make 50,000 full and final offers by the end of this year, 15,000 of them in Wales.

But Councillor Pritchard, who was one of 37 Caerphilly borough Plaid councillors to sign the Argus' petition calling for justice for miners, said: "Many former miners are too frightened to seek improved compensation and are accepting the first offer made, many of which are little short of derisory."

He added: "Sick men should not be treated like this."

A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry said the government accepted that payments had been slow, but said they believed the process had speeded up considerably.

"Our main priority is still to get compensation out as fast and as fairly as possible," he said.