JOHN Roden bowed out in true style with a stinging attack on the Government's role in closing the Selby pit complex.

Announcing his retirement at this week's Christmas concert at Selby Abbey, he went out not with a whimper but a bang, and a departing salvo aimed at New Labour.

He told the 200-plus audience that the Department for Trade and Industry had just agreed to give £37 million to safeguard 2,000 Yorkshire miners' jobs, but nothing for Selby.

He said: "Meanwhile, Defra, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was doing its level best to sink the coal industry without trace, with its disgraceful reaction to the EU directive on sulphur emissions.

"The Government has chosen to ignore investment in clean coal technology and so an industry that no longer goes with the image of New Labour is allowed to decline with the minimum of political damage."

He admits he has never been one to tiptoe round controversial issues, but prefers to confront them head-on.

The father-of-two has been priest-in-charge at Appleton Roebuck for 20 years and Selby coalfield senior industrial chaplain for the past seven years.

He has made more than a few front page headlines in the Evening Press, including an onslaught in 1999 on an "unholy racket" in York shops.

He suggested boycotting shops which insisted on bombarding shoppers' ears by blasting out loud music.

The following year he publicly apologised after claiming the Queen Mother was the "grandmother of a dysfunctional family".

The remarks, which sparked a national furore, included his belief that the York Minster Bells Appeal should be a tribute to Minster staff or someone with a stronger York link than the Queen Mother. In 2001 he hit out at the Government for its "scandalous" treatment of sick miners waiting for compensation pay-outs.

He claimed that medical checks were being persistently deferred to avoid payment, an allegation refuted by Government ministers.

He first found himself in the Evening Press ten years ago when he introduced so-called Heckles services to try to get some feedback from worshippers at All Saints' Church, Appleton Roebuck.

Dr Roden said: "I did it to liven the church up and to get people to think more about their faith and to ask more questions. I'm not one to shy away from issues if I believe they are important."

A former electrical engineer and teacher, he was senior chaplain at St Peter's School, York from 1977 to 1982.

Dr Roden and his wife, Sheila, plan to retire to a new home near Bishopthorpe.

Updated: 08:51 Monday, December 08, 2003