Cumbria coal mine: Public inquiry after government U-turn

A public inquiry has been announced into plans for the first new deep coal mine in the UK for decades.

The government had previously decided not to intervene on the project near Whitehaven in Cumbria, which was in the hands of local officials.

But ministers have taken control because of “increased” controversy.

Green campaigners say the mine will increase carbon emissions and send the wrong signal in the run-up to a UK-hosted climate conference in October.

The Woodhouse Colliery would extract coking coal for the steel industry from the seabed off St Bees, with a processing plant at Kells, in Whitehaven.

Cumbria County Council councillors, who have been assessing the project since 2017, gave it the go-ahead last March – but have since decided to review the application.

Mr Sharma, who is in charge of preparations for the COP26 UN climate conference, has faced calls to resign over the issue.

He told MPs only last month that the mine was a “local issue” and would be decided by the council.

But the government has now decided to “call in” the application, meaning Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick will get the final say over it.

In a letter to Cumbria County Council, Mr Jenrick said the application had raised issues of “more than local importance”.

He added the reversal had also been prompted by new advice on carbon emissions from government climate advisers published in December.

However, a public inquiry will first be held by independent planners at the Planning Inspectorate. The inquiry process could take a number of months.

Asked on Friday whether the government backed the mine or not, Boris Johnson said he couldn’t get involved as it was a now “qausi-judicial planning decision”.

MP Trudy Harrison, whose Copeland constituency would include the mine, is a ministerial aide to the prime minister and has described opponents of the mine as being in “cloud cuckoo land”.

Ms Harrison has yet to comment on the decision to hold an inquiry, but the Tory MP for nearby Workington, Mark Jenkinson, called the decision a “capitulation to climate alarmists”.

Speaking to BBC Radio Cumbria, he said the “screeching U-turn” could open a “Pandora’s box” over how the UK’s contribution to climate change is measured.

He added there was “nothing on the horizon” to replace coking coal in the process for making steel, a sector that is due to play an important role in the UK’s “green recovery”.

Source: bbc.com