Whitehaven mine inquiry decision 'distressing' says boss

Mark Kirkbride, the chief executive of West Cumbria Mining, has said the decision from Secretary of State for Local Government Robert Jenrick to "call in" proposals for Woodhouse Colliery, on the edge of Whitehaven, appears to have been made in response to "ill-informed comments rather than complying with established policy".

Yesterday, Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, the UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance and a Government advisor for the upcoming COP26 UN conference on climate change in Glasgow became the latest high profile figure to speak against the plans for Woodhouse Colliery.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Carney said he "couldn't quite reconcile" the proposals for the mine with the "overall objective" of reaching net zero carbon emissions.

"It's a decision for the Government", Mr Carney said, but he added that one of the standards "by which major investments should be judged" is whether "they are consistent with our objective to get to net zero, not just at a 2050 horizon but for a nearer term horizon and consistent with the trajectory that has been set out".

Mr Carney is the latest in a growing list of high profile political figures to criticise the plans for the proposed coking coal mine, which would extract coal for use in steel production.

US Presidential Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry has been another figure to pass comment on the mine in recent weeks, stating that the "marketplace" had decided that "coal is not the future".

This public criticism has been unfolding amid a significant shift in the approach to the issue from Local Government Secretary, Robert Jenrick, who in January decided that he would not make an intervention on the plans, in spite of significant pressure from campaigners to do so.

But last week, Mr Jenrick announced he was exercising his authority as Secretary of State for Local Government to "call in" the plans for the mine, which were set to be reviewed again by Cumbria County Council in the coming months following a consideration of the latest carbon budget, published by the independent statutory Climate Change Committee.

Mr Jenrick's decision means that the final say on whether or not to give the mine the go-ahead will fall to him, rather than to Cumbria County Council, which most recently gave its approval to the plans in October last year.

Before Mr Jenrick makes his determination, a public inquiry will be held into the various and complex arguments advanced on both sides of this four year long debate over whether or not the proposed coking coal mine should be built.

Responding to the decision from Mr Jenrick, Mr Kirkbride expressed his frustration at the latest turn of events.

"After committing so much time, resource and private funding towards the creation of a truly worthwhile project, it is distressing to learn that the Secretary of State has decided at this late stage to reverse the two previous decisions not to ‘call in’ the project," he said.

"This appears to be in response to ill-informed comments rather than complying with established policy.

"As is abundantly clear in our planning application, the project would be beneficial to the local West Cumbrian community, the core industry in the north of England and the prosperity of the wider UK."

Mr Kirkbride added that "nothing about the project has changed" since Mr Jenrick concluded he did not wish to intervene in the plans for Woodhouse Colliery in January.

"The Climate Change Committee’s recommendations for the 6th Carbon Budget predate his most recent decision not to intervene, and nothing in the recommendations provide justification for a reversal of Cumbria County Council’s planning committee decisions to approve the project three times," he added.

West Cumbria Mining will, Mr Kirkbride says, now assess the requirements of the public inquiry process and timetable, and "shall ensure that our clear case is presented such that it will be a compelling submission to the planning inspector, to ensure a further approval for the project".

West Cumbria Mining has consistently argued that much of the public discussion over the mine has been rooted in misunderstandings of the industry, stating that there is no viable scalable alternative for coking coal available on the market, and as a result, the continued extraction of coking coal for years to come will be a necessity.

Furthermore, the company argues that opening up a Cumbrian coal mine will negate the need for coking coal to be shipped from the likes of the USA and Australia - journeys it says contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.

"Many of those who have written about the mine do not seem to understand and appreciate the industrial processes and requirements for steelmaking and how the UK will simply continue to import millions of tonnes of steelmaking coal from overseas for the foreseeable future if the UK does not have an indigenous supply of its own," a statement from the company released this week read.

"Until an alternative for coking coal is found, such coal production is essential; it also plays a crucial part in the renewable energy supply chain which relies upon steel for its wind turbines and other key infrastructure."

These arguments are fiercely challenged by critics of the mine. Those opposed to the mine have stated that it is "speculative" to conclude the project will cut down on the global shipping of coking coal, and that sufficient investment in emerging technologies will end the need for coking coal sooner.

The upcoming public inquiry will likely hear from a wide range of arguments, both rooted in economics and climate science.

Copeland's Conservative mayor, Mike Starkie, has long been a vocal supporter of the plans for Woodhouse Colliery, and has argued fiercely in favour of the mine on both counts.

He urged West Cumbria Mining to continue its commitment to the project.

"My personal support for this project is unequivocal and remains steadfast and if the investors and WCM stick with it - and I sincerely hope they do - I will continue to do everything I possibly can to support it to a successful outcome," Mr Starkie said.

Mr Starkie added that he is " confident that in a public enquiry the mine will prevail", and said that such a process is an "opportunity for the facts to be aired and, as I believe the project stacks up in every respect it would get the go ahead and finally reach an outcome."

While a number of high profile Labour Party figures have criticised the mine in recent months, such as Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband, a large number of Labour Party councillors in west Cumbria are firmly in favour of the mine.

Emma Williamson, Labour Cumbria County Councillor for Kells and Sandwith, the ward in which the mine would be built, said she was "shocked" that Mr Jenrick had called in the proposals for Woodhouse Colliery, "given all the phoney politics of recent weeks".

She added that the action from Mr Jenrick "hardly inspires confidence in Government from investors or business".

But there is also plenty of strong opposition to the mine in Cumbria.

One of the central figures in the four years long battle fight against the mine has been Marianne Bennett, the founder of the nuclear safety group Radiation Free Lakeland.

The group's "Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole" campaign has continually called for the plans to be scrapped, with arguments grounded both in climate concerns and in concerns over nuclear safety.

Ms Bennet said: “The Government U-turn on a public inquiry is brilliant news."

She added this was the case, "provided the inquiry also offers a further opportunity for the nuclear impacts of the proposal to be looked at again, given the development will take place under decades of Sellafield's radioactive wastes and just five miles from the world's riskiest nuclear waste site.

"We will be calling for that scrutiny to happen alongside the climate change issues.”