CAMPAIGN groups have formally lodged a legal application to try stop the government’s decision to grant planning permission for a new coal mine in Cumbria.

On January 13, South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) and Friends of the Earth committed to their legal bid by lodging papers at the High Court in Manchester. 

Both groups revealed it was taking legal action earlier this month in their bid to challenge Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove's decision to grant planning permission for the Woodhouse Colliery, Whitehaven. 

The groups are asking the High Court for permission to bring a Statutory Review of Gove’s decision, and sets out four grounds of challenge which, in SLACC’s view, mean that the decision was unlawful and should be quashed.

READ MORE: Copeland Mayor says legal challenge to stop coal mine is 'futile'

Carole Wood, chair of SLACC, said: "Gove acknowledged that 220 million tonnes of greenhouse gases would be released from the coal extracted over the mine’s lifetime, and that most of the coal would be exported rather than used in the UK or EU,  but he still concluded that the mine would be 'climate neutral or slightly beneficial'.

"Our claim sets out the errors in law; the failure to give intelligible reasons, and the disparity of treatment between the parties that Gove employed to arrive at this contradictory conclusion." 

Simarily, Friends of the Earth campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said: "Planning to open a new coal mine in the middle of a climate emergency is unthinkable. Our legal challenge focuses on how the Secretary of State dealt with evidence relating to climate change put forward by Friends of the Earth and others at the planning inquiry.

"The people of West Cumbria have been badly let down by years of government under-investment. Long-term, sustainable jobs are desperately wanted and needed.

"Hundreds of jobs could be created in the area by a programme to insulate homes which would also bring down household energy bills and cut climate emissions. How soon this happens is down to the government and when it makes the investment that is so clearly needed," he said. 

The Government’s climate tsar has also spoken out against the decision to approve a new coal mine in Cumbria.

Speaking at the launch of his review of net zero policies, Tory MP Chris Skidmore said the decision “would not have been able to happen” if his recommendations had been in place.

He also expressed doubt about whether the coal mine would ever be built, noting it was subject to a legal challenge.

He said: “Let’s wait and see whether this coal mine actually happens – if this report is taken forward it never will.”

READ MORE: SLACC pursuing legal action to stop coal mine coming to West Cumbria