The company behind plans to bring back coal mining to West Cumbria has confirmed it is taking legal action in response to Cumbria County Council’s decision to reconsider plans for the project.
West Cumbria Mining, the company behind proposals for a new coking coal mine just outside Whitehaven, has begun the formal process required to trigger a Judicial Review into Cumbria County Council’s decision to return plans for the mine to its development control and regulation committee, announced just days before the final permission for the mine’s go-ahead was set to be issued.
The county council announced its decision early last month, explaining that a further look at the proposals was necessary in light of the “consideration of new information” relating to the recommendations for the Sixth Carbon Budget published by the Government’s Climate Change Committee in December last year.
Significant national and international attention has been paid to the proposals for Woodhouse Colliery, near Whitehaven, which if constructed would extract coking coal for use in steel production.
There is both vocal support and opposition to plans for the mine, locally, nationally and internationally.
Critics of the plans argue that it would damage the UK’s chances of hitting its carbon net zero targets, while proponents of the mine insist the climate impacts of the mine, particularly when the impact on coking coal imports is factored in, are overstated.
It has yet to be confirmed when the plans for Woodhouse Colliery will be returned to the development control and regulation committee, for a fourth time.
The committee will be tasked with once again considering the arguments for and against granting West Cumbria Mining Permission to construct Woodhouse Colliery, taking into consideration the relevant laws, including those governing the impact of industry on the climate.
Campaign groups including South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC), maintain that for the county council to have issued final approval for the mine without having considered the sixth carbon budget “might” have been unlawful.
But West Cumbria Mining said that this conclusion was “based on a misunderstanding of the relevant law and facts”.
It added: “WCM strongly believes that the decision to return this to Committee again, at the eleventh hour and after comprehensive, extensive and prolonged consultation and consideration, cannot be justified”.
In the weeks following the county council’s announcement that another look would be taken at the proposals, WCM has been “reviewing the potential routes forward for the project”.
“As a result of the actions taken by Cumbria [County Council], WCM concluded that the only course of action was to explore legal options to secure the future of the project,” it said.
As such, the firm has now instructed law firm Hogan Lovells to take legal action, “on concerns that Cumbria County Council’s decision-making process is robust and in accordance with the established framework”.
The company states that the decision to instigate Judicial Review proceedings into the county council’s move to return the plans for Woodhouse Colliery to its development control and regulation committee follows “continued attempts to resolve” the matter.
WCM also argues that it is “already bound by planning conditions” to the degree that the proposed mine’s operational greenhouse gas emissions “are so low that they would be within any and all of the fourth, fifth, and sixth carbon budget recommendations”.
Mark Kirkbride, the chief executive of West Cumbria Mining, has claimed that the latest actions of the council have created a very real risk that the Woodhouse Colliery project will never be delivered, adding that the project’s failure would be devastating for West Cumbria, as well as the Northern Powerhouse and Industrial Strategy initiatives.
“I shall continue to do all that I can to deliver this project and the clear benefits it will provide”, Mr Kirkbride said.
A spokesman for Cumbria County Council confirmed yesterday that a legal challenge from West Cumbria Mining has been submitted, “in respect of the council’s decision to refer the planning application back to its development control and regulation committee.
“The council is unable to comment further whilst this legal process known as Judicial Review is ongoing,” the spokesman added.
