ONE of the region's last surviving coal miners has continued to scale back its fossil fuel business as part of major a restructure plan aimed at growing revenue from transport, property and renewable energy.

County Durham's Hargreaves Services said it has decided to "further accelerate its withdrawal from the thermal coal sector" - which supplies power stations - following continuing low coal prices and weak demand.

As a result, it hopes to generate £66m over the next year from the sale of coal and coke stocks, surplus plant and equipment, and loans from a joint venture.

UK solid fuel suppliers - led by Esh Winning-based Hargreaves and Banks in nearby Meadowfield - has been battered by falling demand from power stations and steel plants.

Hargreaves has identified the opportunity to create "significant medium term value and cash generation" from the development of projects around the group's 18,500 acre property portfolio. This includes the development of onshore wind energy projects, two energy-from-waste projects and a number of other projects and collaborations centred on the group's electricity grid connections.

Gordon Banham, Hargreaves' chief executive, said: "This announcement marks an important turning point for the Group. After eighteen months of market turmoil, we are finally completing a challenging phase of restructuring to move away from our traditional areas of focus and reposition the Group. The bulk of that restructuring work is complete and we can now look forward and actively pursue the value creation opportunities ahead of us. We have protected our strong balance sheet position throughout this difficult time.

"Today we find ourselves with a balance sheet with net assets of around £140m and we have set ourselves the objective of turning £66m of legacy assets on that balance sheet into free cash as quickly as possible in an orderly fashion.

We are also setting ourselves the aspirational goal of developing and realising £50m of incremental value from our extensive property and energy project portfolio over the next five years to further grow our net asset base."

Hargreaves' transport division will look to win more business in road transport, recycling and disposal for the waste and construction markets, as well as the supply of aggregate.