West Cumbria Mining Ltd said it had “robustly” defended the legal challenges against its planned deep coal mine heard last week in the High Court.
U-TURN
The company responded in a deferred rolled-up hearing between 16 and 18 July, to objections from Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change to the then Conservative Government’s approval for the mine.
Since the original hearing date was set, the Supreme Court has ruled in a similar case of resource extraction, namely oil production at Horse Hill in Surrey, that the planning application must include downstream emissions.
Horse Hill received approval in 2019.
The ruling was followed by a statement from the new Labour Government’s secretary of state Angela Rayner that initial approval for the mine had been an “error in law” and withdrew support for the mine.
“WCM did not agree with this extraordinary U-turn, and as a result (as permitted under court procedures) continued to defend the case on its own,” said the company today.
“WCM now awaits the decision of the High Court, with the judgement anticipated to be issued within the next few months.”
The underground mine named Woodhouse Colliery has planning approval to operate until 2049, including the extraction of metallurgical under the coast of Whitehaven in Cumbria.