PowerSwitch

The government will no longer defend a decision, made by the previous government, to allow a controversial new coalmine in Cumbria.

The new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, has accepted there was an “error of 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 Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC).

It has instead informed the court that the decision to grant planning permission should be quashed.

West Cumbria Mining wants to build the UK’s first deep coal mine in over 30 years. It would produce metallurgical coal, also called coking coal, for use by the steel industry.

adam2 wrote: ↑11 Jul 2024, 23:16 I see no merit in shutting down UK iron and steel production and then being reliant on imports from places with poor records on the environment.