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Home Latest

West Cumbria Mining: Ex-Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry says ‘Mine fits with levelling up strategy’

by Cumbria Crack
07/09/2021
in Latest, News
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Aerial CGI of Woodhouse Colliery mine site

The first day of the Public Inquiry into plans for an £160 million undersea coal mine off the coast of Whitehaven has concluded.

The inquiry is being held after Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick called in the plans by West Cumbria Mining – after they had been approved three times by Cumbria Council and after he said it was a local matter – for scrutiny.

Mr Jenrick will make the final decision about the mine after planning inspector Stephen Normington makes his recommendation.

The inquiry is expected to last for four weeks. It is being livestreamed via Youtube due to COVID-19.

It began at 10am, led by Mr Normington.

Opening submissions were made by Paul Brown QC for Friends of the Earth, Gregory Jones QC for West Cumbria Mining, Christopher Katkowski QC for Cumbria County Council and Estelle Dehon, for South Lakes Action on Climate Change.

The county council has adopted a position of strict neutrality on the planning application, Mr Katkowski said, and will not be calling witnesses during the inquiry.

Mr Brown said he would call six witnesses, Mr Jones said he would call eight witnesses for West Cumbria Mining ranging from landscaping to the economic benefits of the proposed mine and Ms Dehon will call nine witnesses.

The inquiry will also involve round table discussions and day two of the inquiry will be dedicated to interested parties – both for and against the scheme.

Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change are opposing the mine because they say it does not fit with the strategic aims of the Government to combat climate change.

Supporters say the mine will create 500 direct jobs and 1,500 jobs in the supply chain, plus the mine would produce coking coal – integral for the steel-making process.

The advocates made opening statements and in the afternoon, MPs and former Northern Powerhouse Minister Jake Berry spoke to the inquiry about West Cumbria Mining’s planning application.

MP for Ashfield Lee Anderson was the first MP to speak. A former miner, he said all fossil fuels should be phased out as soon as possible, but he was in favour of the mine.

He said the mine would be the first net carbon mine in the world.

Workington MP Mark Jenkinson told the inquiry the plans would bring huge economic benefits to the area, which had traditionally been reliant on nuclear.

He said there was great support for the mine and that coking coal was essential in making steel – which was, in turn, essential for alternative energies.

He said it was an opportunity in a generation for the area and realistically, there was no other plan or company that could come close.

Jake Berry, the former Northern Powerhouse Minister, spoke because, he said, he felt the project fitted in well with the Government’s levelling up strategy.

He has followed the application with interest, he added, for a number of years.

He said it was ‘massively important’ for jobs in Cumbria.

“When you think about this application and the impact it will have on Cumbria’s economy, you have to see it in the widest possible context.

“Cumbria has done relatively well as it has been supported by a long period of time by the nuclear industry. but it was clear to me that it is downscaling and it seemed to me clear that in terms of those high-skilled high-paid jobs this was a great new scheme which would create just those kind of jobs.

“West Cumbria has huge issues with job creation because of infrastructure as it’s quite way a way from everywhere – it’s a long way from Carlisle, let alone London or Manchester.

“To have the opportunity of a brand new business coming to the area not bound or captured or imprisoned by geography of the area seemed to me an attractive prospect.”

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron said the mine was promising ‘false hope’ to people as plans were in place to displace coking coal by 2035 so the mine would be redundant in a few years.

He said the business case for the mine was really weak and

Mr Farron has long campaigned against the mine, presenting a petition to Parliament in 2019 opposing the plans and he led the calls asking for the Secretary of State to call in the application last year.

He said: “In a matter of weeks time, the United Kingdom will host and lead COP26.

“Our ministers are going to need to look China, India, Russia, the United States, Brazil in the eye and urge them to decarbonise.

“They will not be ignorant to this discussion we are currently having.

“If we sanction the opening of a new coal mine in the United Kingdom then we will be laughed at and our ability to lead will be diminished.

“This moment – where we are able to potentially to bring with us a series of nations to make big decisions and decarbonise – will be critically undermined. We will have squandered our capacity to lead.

“So this is an incredibly serious decision. This is a massive issue. This is not just something for us Cumbrians to concern ourselves with.

“This is something which is potentially going to rob us of the capacity to push world leaders towards the radical decarbonisation that we desperately, desperately need.”

Mr Jones asked him if he was content to allow the steel industry to continue to import coking coal until 2035. Mr Farron said: “That 100 per cent is going to get lower. This coal mine will export 87 per cent of its produce so 100 per cent will come from its current sources, but it will be diminishing.”

Copeland MP Trudy Harrison thanked her constituents, who she said had contacted her in droves – the majority in support of Woodhouse Colliery.

“Engineering and pioneering is what we do best in Copeland. It is in our DNA. At the heart of this debate is steel. The UK is embarking on a green industrial revolution. The PM has set out his 10-point plan and every one of those points involves steel.

“Your average wind turbine that will take about 220 tonnes of steel. It is the steel industry that is key to delivering the low carbon transition and the low carbon energy of the future.”

The second day of inquiry has begun. Watch it here.

https://youtu.be/jx_QHCutv5I
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