Earlier this year, the Government confirmed that West Cumbria Mining (WCM) withdrew its planning application for the planned Whitehaven coal mine.
Plans were in place to open England’s first deep coal in decades to provide coking coal for steel but the project faced numerous legal challenges from environmental groups.
WCM first submitted the planning application for the coal mine in 2014, and permission was initially granted in March 2019.
A High Court judge has ruled that the previous government’s decision to grant planning permission to the new coal mine in west Cumbria in 2022 was unlawful.
Mr Justice Holgate said in the ruling that giving the go-ahead for the development at Whitehaven in Cumbria was “legally flawed.”
The judgement follows legal challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) to the government’s decision to approve the mine plans, the two groups argued that the emissions from burning the extracted coal were not properly considered during the planning process.
Shortly after the general election, Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said that there was an “error of law” in the decision to grant planning permission for the mine in 2022.
Despite the legal challenges, Reform UK deputy leader, Richard Tice, said that the mine was a casualty caused by the ‘wallies in Westminster’.
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“The Cumbrian mine is a fantastic opportunity we should be opening that mine,” said Richard Tice, speaking at the Reform UK conference.
“There has been lots of enthusiasm locally to open it and people are appalled that the wallies in Westminster have basically prevented it.”
Mr Tice also claimed that the coal could be used in a ‘blended basis’ at the British Steel site in Scunthorpe but this has previously been disputed.
