West Cumbria Mining urged to come clean over Whitehaven planning permission
West Cumbria Mining urged to come clean over Whitehaven planning permission
• Company urged to break its silence over controversial coal mine
West Cumbria Mining (WCM) is being urged to provide a public update setting out any plans it might still have for developing a controversial new coalmine in Cumbria.
A coalition of local and national environment organisations, including Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Cumbria Action for Sustainability, Coal Action Network, and West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth - have written [1] to the company asking if it still intends to proceed with its planning application.
Plans to build the highly controversial coal mine have suffered enormous setbacks in recent weeks. Planning permission was quashed by the High Court in September [2], following legal challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change, with the Coal Authority refusing mining licences [3] for the scheme shortly afterwards.
If West Cumbria Mining wants Communities Secretary, Angela Rayner to re-assess the planning application, the expectation is that it will have to submit a new assessment on the climate impact of its proposal – including from the burning of the coal it plans to extract.
In their letter, the coalition asks WCM to break its silence on the mine, and in particular, whether it intends to withdraw its planning application.
• If WCM intends to pursue its planning application, the groups ask:
• When will you submit the required updated climate assessment, taking into account emissions from burning the coal produced by the mine?
• Do you have guaranteed finance in place to build the mine if planning
permission is granted?
• How robust is the medium- and long-term market for the mine’s coal,
given the likely closure of the remaining blast furnaces in the UK steel
industry and the moves away from coal announced by EU steelmakers?
• When will you be submitting revised plans to address the criticisms made
by the Coal Authority around the risk of subsidence and the financial
viability of the project?
• What are your revised timescales for obtaining the other licences and
permits needed?
The organisations are calling for investment in the area to provide the jobs, hope and prosperity it desperately needs, but say “we do not believe that the coal mine is the right way to do this – areas like West Cumberland must be at the heart of the zero-carbon economy that we need to move towards.”
Friends of the Earth energy campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said:
“Despite recent setbacks, West Cumbria Mining have stayed silent about their plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria. It’s high time that they came clean: do they still intend to press on and try to build the mine or are they withdrawing their planning application?
“With the High Court quashing planning permission and the Coal Authority refusing to grant mining licences, it’s time to pull the plug on this damaging and unnecessary development once and for all.
“The focus must now be on providing the long-term sustainable jobs the area urgently needs by putting it at the forefront of building the cleaner, greener future the government has promised to deliver.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. On 11 November 2024, Friends of the Earth sent a letter to the Chief Executive and Chairman of West Cumbria Mining Ltd. It read:
Dear Mr Kirkbride & Mr Hegarty,
We are writing to you, as representatives of West Cumbria Mining Ltd, to ask you to provide a public update about the status of your proposed coal mine in Whitehaven.
This project has had two significant setbacks in the last two months, with the High Court quashing your planning permission, and the Coal Authority refusing to grant you coal mining licences.
On neither of these occasions, nor on the deadline to appeal against the High Court order, did West Cumbria Mining issue a public statement or respond to media requests for comment.
This has left the local community and the wider public in the dark. We believe that you, as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of West Cumbria Mining Ltd, have a responsibility to make your intentions clear to local people as soon as possible, and so we ask that you provide answers to the following questions:
• Will you now withdraw your planning application, thereby providing clarity for future decision-making?
• Instead, if you do intend to carry on with the planning application:
o When will you submit the required updated climate assessment, taking into account emissions from burning the coal produced by the mine?
o Do you have guaranteed finance in place to build the mine if planning permission is granted?
o How robust is the medium- and long-term market for the mine’s coal, given the likely closure of the remaining blast furnaces in the UK steel industry and the moves away from coal announced by EU steelmakers?
o When will you be submitting revised plans to address the criticisms made by the Coal Authority around the risk of subsidence and the financial viability of the project?
o What are your revised timescales for obtaining the other licences and permits needed?
o When do you envisage the mine opening?
There must be investment in West Cumbria to provide the jobs, hope and prosperity the area desperately needs. We do not believe that the coal mine is the right way to do this – areas like West Cumbria must be at the heart of the zero-carbon economy that we need to move towards. Furthermore, the people of Whitehaven must be given back the public, green open space they were promised when chemical manufacturing ceased at the site you selected for the project.
We believe that answers to the questions above are needed urgently, and so we look forward to hearing from you by Friday 22 November.
Yours sincerely,
Jamie Peters
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Friends of the Earth England, Wales & Northern Ireland
On behalf of:
Karen Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer, Cumbria Action for Sustainability
Clara Paillard, Director, Tipping Point UK
Anne Harris, Campaigner, Coal Action Network
Ellen Robottom
Secretary, Trade Union Group, Campaign Against Climate Change
Ruth Balogh, Co-ordinator, West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth Ali Ross, Extinction Rebellion North Lakes
2. Planning permission for Whitehaven mine ruled unlawful: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/planning-permission-whitehaven-mine-ruled-unlawful
3. Coal authority rejects planning mining licence for controversial coal mine https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/knockout-blow-cumbrian-coal-mine