IN his Saturday column, "A terrible story for Gala day" (Echo, July 14), Chris Lloyd's evocative and harrowing description of what miners and their families suffered when "Coal was King" reminded us of the debt we owed, and still owe, to the thousands of men and boys (not forgetting the ponies) who earned their living underground.

The annual Durham Miners' Gala tells us that the people of the North- East will never forget these brave men and boys.

Perhaps new technology will enable us to resume mining the millions of tons of coal still buried under our feet.

We either find a way to mine coal cleanly or there will be no alternative to building many more nuclear power stations.

With Wm Press, now part of Amec, I worked on the design of the cooling water systems for the reactors at Hunterston and Hinckley Point and, providing health and safety regulations are properly observed, I do feel that, like France and Germany, we have nothing to fear from building more nuclear power stations.

Perhaps all the unmined coal could be like money in the bank and come to our rescue sometime in the future.

Hugh Pender, Darlington.