A campaign group is to gather in Whitehaven to show its support for West Cumbria coal mine.
On Monday the public inquiry panel will visit the West Cumbria Mining site at Kells.
We Support West Cumbria Mining (WSWCM) says it will be on hand to welcome the panel and show its support for the mine.
John Greasley from WSWCM said: “We invite anyone who is in favour and wants their voice to be heard to stand with us on Monday and show the panel what local people really think about the proposal and all the positives it will bring to our region.
“We as a support group for the mine have been inundated with messages of support and our social media pages have grown fourfold over the last month. There has been a small band of protesters voicing their opinions, mainly people from out of the county, however, our supporters cannot wait to welcome the panel and voice our support for this much needed, world-class project.”
South Lakeland Against Climate Change (SLACC) is leading the challenge to claims made by West Cumbria Mining Company (WCM), who propose to build a mine on the Woodhouse Colliery site.
The campaign group claim that the coal from this mine is “not the type that the UK and EU steel industry needs” and “the European Steel industry is moving away from using coal because it has to meet stringent new targets to tackle climate change”.
A four-week Planning Inspectorate inquiry into the proposals is set to conclude next week.
