The Government has pulled out of defending plans for a multi-million-pound coal mine off the coast of West Cumbria, campaigners said.
Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action Against Climate Change said the Government has admitted the plans, from West Cumbria Mining, were permitted unlawfully following a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court last month.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government said there was an error in law in the decision to grant planning permission for the mine in December 2022.
Consequently, the Government will not now be defending two legal challenges next week against the mine by the campaign groups and has instead informed the court that the decision to grant planning permission should be quashed.
If that is agreed by the court, the planning application will go back to the Secretary of State to make a fresh decision.
The Government’s move follows the result of the Supreme Court’s recent judgement on the Finch v Surrey County Council case, which ruled that emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for new extraction projects – not just the impacts of the emissions produced in extracting them.
Combustion emissions from the inevitable burning of the Cumbrian coal should have been assessed in the developer’s climate assessment.
The two legal challenges to the previous decision to grant planning permission for the mine are still expected to take place at the Royal Courts of Justice on the 16th July – unless West Cumbria Mining also concedes the case, the campaign groups said.
Friends of the Earth climate co-ordinator, Jamie Peters, said: “We’re delighted the Government agrees that planning permission for this destructive, polluting and unnecessary coal mine was unlawfully granted and that it should be quashed. We hope the court agrees, and that the mine is then rejected when the Secretary of State reconsiders the application.
“Friends of the Earth will continue to stand alongside SLACC and the other community groups in Cumbria who have fought so bravely to halt this mine.
“The new government must now ensure that areas like West Cumbria get the jobs and investment they urgently need so that people living there can reap the benefits of building a clean, green and affordable future.”
Maggie Mason, of SLACC, said: “We argued throughout the Inquiry and this legal claim that the emissions from using the coal were not properly assessed and it is great to see this acknowledged. Our small charity has opposed the mine because of its harmful impacts on the local and global climate, and the appalling precedent created by West Cumbria Mining’s claim that a new coal mine doesn’t increase the global use of coal.
“Building the mine on an old chemical site close to homes and the Irish Sea was also risky. West Cumbrians deserve jobs that don’t cost the earth”.
