High Court hearing over controversial Whitehaven coal mine decision concludes
A High Court hearing into two legal challenges against plans for a controversial coal mine in west Cumbria has concluded.
Planning permission was granted by the then Secretary of State for Communities, Michael Gove, for the Woodhouse Colliery site in December 2022, which was set to be the first new coal mine in the UK in 30 years.
Campaign groups South Lakes Action on Climate Change and Friends of the Earth launched legal challenges, claiming that Mr Gove "failed to account for the significant climate impacts of the mine", rendering the decision unlawful.
The department had been due to defend the claim, but on July 11, Friends of the Earth said the Government had withdrawn its defence and would no longer defend the claims.
The hearing before Mr Justice Holgate concluded around midday with a decision in writing expected at a later date.
Outside the High Court, in London, environmental campaigners gathered to show their support.
Among them was Maggie Mason from South Lakes on Climate Change.
She said: “It's been so gruelling, it's been a really, really tiring three days, but to be honest it's at the end of a fairly tiring five years.
"We really felt we had to do it, we had to put the effort in because there are local harms.
"There are harms to Cumbria, there are harms to the whole globe."
The lawyers for the developers, West Cumbria Mining, have been defending the decision.
They argued that the mine's emissions will be overall net zero.
They put forward the principle of 'substitution', meaning that if the coal is being extracted in Cumbria, it isn't being extracted elsewhere.
If the coal was being extracted in the US, for example, then emissions would be higher because it would be transported further.
Also among the demonstrators this week was Sarah Finch from Weald Action Group.
She challenged Surrey County Council’s decision to allow the expansion of an oil well site at Horse Hill, near Horley in Surrey, in 2019.
She argued that the environmental impact assessment carried out before planning permission was granted, only took into account the impact of extracting the oil and that it should have taken into account the “downstream” emissions produced when the oil was burned.
Last month a Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ms Finch saying emissions created by burning fossil fuels need to be considered when granting planning permission for new drilling sites.
Ms Finch said the proposed Whitehaven mine planning application similarly did not account for the total emissions that the site would create.
Ms Finch added: "I'm very hopeful that the judge here will recognise that the Supreme Court’s decision on my case has a direct bearing.
"The environmental statement that the mine company have produced should have included those combustion emissions and that is the largest part of a fossil fuel production project.
"They only looked at the production itself which is about 1% of the total emissions.
"So I hope that my win will mean that this mine is ruled unlawful too."
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said that as decisions regarding the mine remain subject to ongoing litigation, it would be "inappropriate" for it to comment further.
It added, "the Secretary of State accepts that there was an error of law in the decision to grant planning permission for Whitehaven coal mine and the Secretary of State will no longer be defending the claims".
The company behind the proposed plans, West Cumbria Mining, has been approached for comment.
They have previously said that the mine at Woodhouse Colliery will create at least 500 jobs, mostly for local people.
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