Evidence Sent to the Public Inquiry – Please Send Your Own in Before May 6th

Dear Friends,

below is our evidence to the public inquiry – please do feel free to use this as inspiration for your own letters to the Planning Inspectorate.

Our evidence is not a full list by any means – for example we havn’t mentioned the re-routing of the Wainwright Coast to Coast or the fact that this area is the last breeding place of in England of the black guillemot.

In conclusion we have said :

“Radiation Free Lakeland strongly urge the Planning Inspector to consider issues which he may initially have felt were outside the scope of this Inquiry but which have been central to our concerns from the outset. Issues including nuclear safety and drinking water quality.  Issues which may in the final analysis be of even more overwhelming concern than climate impacts.   Nuclear impacts would be catastrophic for the immediate and long term future and viability of not only Cumbria’s health and safety but the health and safety of our neighbouring countries.  Our final thought is to leave the image of our first thought upon seeing West Cumbria Mining’s vision of the coal mine.  It looks uncannily similar to the view of the Chernobyl sarcophagus and for those living in the shadow of Sellafield looks like the threat of a nuclear sacrifice zone rather than a promise of a “green mine.”   

We urge the Planning Inspector to overturn Cumbria County Council’s approval for this uniquely dangerous coal mine.“

Please do write to the Planning Inspectorate, include your name and address and write before May 6th to this address, if you would like to speak at the inquiry please do let the Planning Inspectorate know.

Email: inquirydocuments4@planninginspectorate.gov.uk
Quote reference ‘APP/H0900/V/21/3271069
By post. (please send 3 copies written in black if possible)
Letters can be sent to:
Ms Elizabeth Humphrey
The Planning Inspectorate
Room 3/J Kite Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Bristol, BS1 6PN

Our full letter is below – please do use for inspiration for your own letters to the Planning Inspectorate

on behalf of Radiation Free Lakeland

References:

(1) GDF plan halted 2013 https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/eddie-martins-speech-to-cabinet-on-30th-january/

(2). Keekle Head  https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/17139603.protesters-argue-against-the-burial-of-low-level-n-waste/

(3) Legal Challenge https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/cumbriancoal2/

(4) Leigh Day Judicial Review granted permission https://www.leighday.co.uk/latest-updates/news/2020-news/cumbrian-campaign-group-granted-permission-for-judicial-review-of-county-councils-approval-of-coal-mine/#:~:text=Campaign%20group%2C%20Keep%20Cumbrian%20Coal,the%20UK%20to%20be%20built.&text=On%2020%20June%202019%2C%20Leigh%20Day%20wrote%20to%20Cumbria%20County%20Council.

(5)

(6) Copy attached  of Final Judgement between Marianne Bennett and Cumbria County Council and West Cumbria Mining 18/08/2020

(7) “Despite the applicant declaring on the company website that the raw material has very low ash and moderate sulphur levels, the key coking characteristics reflected in the current set of conditions are already and generously set high, at 8% for ash and 1.25% for sulphur.  The applicant now requests to relax this to 9% and 2% respectively but is not offering a credible reason why this is necessary”.  https://keepcumbriancoalinthehole.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/another-excellent-letter-of-objection-to-the-coal-mine-plan-write-today/

(8) Anhydrite mine  https://copeland.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s7511/West%20Cumbria%20Mining%204-17-9007-0F2.pdf

(9) Potential for Contamination of Egremont boreholes used by UU as potable drinking water source for parts of West Cumbria (Appendix 12-9 Response to EA Comments by ESI Consulting – attached)

(10) “This group is dedicated to improving the water quality in West Cumbria and has been created as a result of the recent introduction of borehole water into our supply which many feel is unsatisfactory to say the least”. .https://www.facebook.com/groups/253953375095270/

(11) Groundwater monitoring at Sellafield https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/705993/Groundwater_Monitoring_at_Sellafield_-_Annual_Data_Review_2016.pdf

“workers repairing the leak were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, preventing them from discussing the details of the work, however Sellafield has denied this. The spokesman said: “We have been open and transparent about this incident. We have kept our regulators and stakeholders informed throughout and published details on our website on 18 November.” Last month there was another leak in the older part of the site and work is due to take place in the new year. Sellafield said: “The current suspected leak is in an inaccessible part of the building, which is underground. 

https://www.in-cumbria.com/news/18052483.radioactive-fluid-leaking-sellafield-silo/

(12) Byerstead Fault questions asked of the EA and BGS https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/west_cumbria_mining_abstraction_2

(13) Troubled Waters  https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/request-for-a-question-in-parliament-on-cumbrias-troubled-waters/amp/

(14) Citizen Science – Radioactive Beaches https://electricityinfo.org/news/sellafield-103/

(15) A briefing paper by Tim Deere-Jones. WEST CUMBRIA MINING: WOODHOUSE COLLIERY PROPOSAL RADIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS of POTENTIAL SEABED SUBSIDENCE SEISMICITY & “FAULT RE-ACTIVATION” beneath The CUMBRIAN MUD PATCH: INDUCED BY “MASS REMOVAL”, RAPID EXTRACTION & VOID SPACE CREATION.  https://issuu.com/wildart/docs/west_cumbria_mining_-_radiological_implications_of

(16)  Cronyism https://www.lakesagainstnucleardump.com/post/hot-nuclear-waste-and-duff-high-ash-high-sulphur-coal-for-steel-top-trump-cronies

(17)  Coal Authority https://keepcumbriancoalinthehole.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/developers-ask-coal-authority-for-license-to-drill-tell-kwasi-kwarteng-to-veto-the-diabolic-plan-or-at-least-call-for-a-public-consultation/

(18)   CUMBRIA, NUCLEAR WASTE, A GEOLOGICAL ‘DISPOSAL’ FACILITY (GDF) AND THE PROPOSED COAL MINE PETE ROCHE NUCLEAR FREE LOCAL AUTHORITIES ENGLISH FORUM 5TH MARCH 2021 https://www.nuclearpolicy.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Cumbria_Coal_GDF_PR.pdf

(19) enclosed The Pit and the Polar bear – comic book.

West Cumbria Mining Pay £1 to Acquire £1.6 Million of Heritage Lottery Funded Mine Museum and Lands

While the entertaining distraction of the ‘Climate and Jobs’ Punch and Judy show rages very publicly over the Cumbrian Coal Mine – important burning issues are buried. Nuclear issues such as the fact that the subsidence inducing mine would be under decades of Sellafield’s discharged ‘low level’ wastes. Nuclear issues such as that at least two executives, including the existing CEO of the coal mine, have been appointed by Government to public bodies pushing for deep dumping of high and intermediate level nuclear wastes. The Irish Sea area, adjacent to the coal mine plan, is in the frame. The CEO of the coal mine in his government appointed role will be talking about this diabolic plan on the 15th March with the Science Discovery Group.

The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are only too delighted for NGOs, Talking Heads and the media to keep the focus sharply on climate and jobs (of which there are no guarantees made that there would be an optimistic 500). Government would rather not publicise the fact that BEIS (through the Coal Authority) gave the developers conditional license to drill “exploratory boreholes” under the Irish Sea eight years ago (over the heads of the public and councillors) . BEIS also appoint the Committee on Climate Change who have unsurprisingly studiously avoided berating BEIS. BEIS also appointed the CEO of West Cumbria Mining, Mark Kirkbride, to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management. Here is BEIS minister Anne-Marie Trevalyan supporting the coal mine whose CEO is in the pay of BEIS.

While much has been enthusiastically made by the mine’s supporters of what a financial boon the development would be, the reality is that the developers have effectively already stolen substantial funds from the public purse.

A Freedom of Information question has just been asked regarding liquidation of the Haig Mining Museum (despite visitor numbers far exceeding expectations the Museum went into liquidation).

Haig Mining Museum – Was £1.6 Million of Heritage Lottery Money returned ?

“To The National Lottery Heritage Fund,

In 2019 you put in a claim for repayment of £1.6 Million in respect of liquidation of the Haig Mining Museum.

Was the £1.6 Million returned ?

If not, what was the explanation ?

(the Museum, Buildings and Land were subsequently bought for just £1 by West Cumbria Mining in what looks like a closed agreement between WCM, the liquidators and Copeland Borough Council ).”

Interestingly according to the Liquidators, West Cumbria Mining were not at all keen to make their £1 purchase of the Haig Museum, Buildings and Land until they were assured that they had planning permission. This prevarication cost the creditors over £12,000. This is what the Liquidators said : “We now consider that the fee estimate we previously provided for the liquidation is insufficient to complete our duties as a result of : The Company’s asset realisations have proved more protracted than was initially anticipated. This is due to the sale to WCM taking significantly longer than anticipated. This has happened as they did not wish to complete the transaction (£1) whilst there was still uncertainty for them as to whether they would achieve the full planning permission required to run their operations. …”

Having paid their £1 for the Haig, Museum and Land the developers West Cumbria Mining immediately proceeded to make sure that their newly acquired assets (of Cumbria’s heritage), in the event of some planned administrative ‘bankruptcy’ or ‘take over’, would not go to creditors but to WCM’s backers EMR Capital, to persons hidden from view in the Cayman Islands. It is pretty clear that WCM’s eye is on the glittering prize – and that glittering prize is not coking coal but Governmental contracts into the most diabolic plan for heat generating nuclear wastes – a plan that would involve eye watering amounts of public money over decades, contracts to drill become contracts to kill, to dump heat generating nuclear wastes under the Irish Sea. They call it Geological Disposal of Nuclear Wastes in the UK. Not one country has done this and the countries that are trying to do it have not returned to areas previously ruled out (as Cumbria has been at least three times) as being too geologically complex and unstable.

Whats not to like? Everything! To focus myopically on climate aspects of this coal mine, as is playing out courtesy of pusillanimous NGOs and the Media right now, is to play right into the hands of a Dorian Gray like nuclear corruption. A corruption that includes protection of the diabolic agenda of the nuclear industry at all, literally ALL costs.

URGENT! The Buck Stops With BEIS – NO LICENSE TO MINE COAL!

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng – the buck stops with
BEIS in the issuing of Coal Authority LIcences for
West Cumbria Mining

URGENT ACTION

The conditional Coal Authority Licenses for the diabolic plan to mine 3 million tonnes of coal a year under the Irish Sea and five miles from Sellafield are due to run out any day, the press have been told (repeatedly) but so far only a local online news site has reported on this (Many Thanks to the Cumberland Echo!) .

Please write urgently to the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Please use this template below as inspiration to write your own letter – it doesn’t have to be long the main message is to say that the buck stops with BEIS and they should not issue Coal Authority licenses – the nuclear and climate consequences of this coal mine would cause irreversible damage to life on planet earth.

Contact Details for BEIS and Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng:

phone – 020 7219 5777

email – kwasi.kwarteng.mp@parliament.uk

Twitter- @KwasiKwarteng

Twitter – @beisgovuk

Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP. Minister of State for Business, Energy and Strategy

Dear Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng

WEST CUMBRIA MINING: WOODHOUSE COLLIERY

Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

On your watch the “tension” has been acknowledged between the government washing its hands (Pontius Pilate like) of the Cumbria coal mine saying its a local decision and the UK government’s commitment to net zero carbon and chairing of the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cumbria-coal-mine-kwasi-kwarteng-b1789458.html

The developers West Cumbria Mining hold a series of Coal Authority licences which were issued undemocratically over the heads of the public and local councillors and collectively cover an area of approximately 200 km2 off the coast at Whitehaven along with a far smaller area onshore.

The UK Dept for Business Energy and Industry Strategy argue that the coal mine is a local decision but in the awarding of the previous and any new Coal Authority licenses to the developers (West Cumbria Mining) the buck stops with BEIS. Accountability of the Coal Authority lies directly with the BEIS. The conditional licenses awarded 8 years ago are due to run out any day.

There is another tension apart from that of the climate. Nuclear safety campaigners (Radiation Free Lakeland) were the first to oppose this mine back in 2017. BEIS is directly responsible for the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management . CoRWM have appointed the CEO of the coal mine development, Mark Kirkbride to their committee. This committee was set up to advise BEIS (and Radioactive Waste Management) on “site selection” of a potential Geological Disposal Facility for Radioactive Wastes. The Coal Mine is adjacent to the area under the Irish Sea bed which is ‘in the frame’ for the subsea geological disposal of heat generating nuclear wastes.

Do BEIS believe that mining out coal adjacent to the area in the frame as a Geological Disposal Facility will make the rocks more stable?

Or that mining directly under the decades of Sellafield’s discharged wastes will make them safer?

Nuclear wastes discharged from Sellafield for 70 years would be directly above the coal mine.

They are in the silts known as the Cumbrian Mud Patch, nuclear and chemical wastes of every type including plutonium.

The tension is palpable.

The UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities along with local nuclear safety campaigners Radiation Free Lakeland, have already urged Cumbria County Council to reconsider the impact of the expected subsidence of the Irish Sea bed. Resuspension of the decades worth of radioactive wastes from Sellafield which are currently embedded in the silts of the Cumbrian Mud Patch would be disastrous. Nuclear workers are compensated for Radiation Linked Diseases (http://www.csrld.org.uk/), the public which includes children more vulnerable to radiation impacts are not.

The facts are that WCM have designated and identified a sub-sea mining zone of the Irish Sea lying to the west of St Bees Head and extending at least 8kms offshore and southwards to within about 8km of the Sellafield site. The WCM extraction proposals, using continuous mining methods, predict the extraction of approximately 3 million tonnes of coal per year over decades. This extraction rate would eventually generate a huge subterranean void space of approximately 136 million cubic metres (a volume greater than that of Wastwater Lake). Subsidence say WCM is expected. Sellafield’s discharged nuclear wastes are currently (largely) immobilised in the silt. Subsidence would remobilise the nuclear wastes into the water column and back to the coasts of Cumbria and beyond.

The buck stops with the BEIS. If BEIS issue Coal Authority licenses for this Coal Mine the result would be irreversible (known and unknown) nuclear impacts, as well as climate impacts.

Do Not Rubber Stamp Coal Authority Licenses to West Cumbria Mining. At the very least the wider public should have a say on whether licenses should be issued or not.

Yours Sincerely

name

address

An Open Letter to the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng Who is About to Issue Coal Licenses for West Cumbria Mining

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/4fcb3791-2cf3-4e43-b766-30cb007fb58c

An Open Letter to the Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

Dear Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng 

You said yesterday that there is “a slight tension” between the governmnent washing its hands (Pontius Pilate like) of the Cumbria coal mine saying its a ‘local decision’ and the UK government’s committment to net zero carbon and its chairing of the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in November.

The UK Dept for Business Energy and Industry Strategy argue that the coal mine is “a local decision” but in the awarding of new Coal Authority licenses to the developers (West Cumbria Mining) the buck stops with BEIS.   Accountability of the Coal Authority lies directly with the BEIS.  The first set of licenses is due to run out on 24th January.

As nuclear safety campaigners who have been opposing this mine since 2019 we are very concerned that the climate aspect of this mine may not be the most disastrous to life on planet earth. BEIS is directly responsible for the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management who have appointed the CEO of the coal mine development, Mark Kirkbride to their Committee who advise BEIS and Radioactive Waste Management on “site selection” of a potential Geological Disposal Facility for Radioactive Wastes.  The Coal Mine is adjacent to the area under the Irish Sea bed which is ‘in the frame’  for the subsea geological disposal of heat generating nuclear wastes.   

Do BEIS believe that mining out coal adjacent to the area they are promoting as a Geological Disposal Facility will make the rocks more stable? Or that mining directly underneath the decades of Sellafield’s discharged wastes will make them safer?

The coal mine would be directly beneath the nuclear wastes discharged from Sellafield over the last 70 odd years.  They are in the silts known as the “Cumbrian Mud Patch.”  The UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have along with local nuclear safety campaigners Radiation Free Lakeland, urged Cumbria County Council to reconsider the impact of the expected subsidence of the Irish Sea bed and resuspension of the decades worth of radioactive wastes from Sellafield which are currently embedded in the silts of the Cumbrian Mud Patch. WCM have designated and identified a sub-sea mining zone of the Irish Sea lying to the west of St Bees Head and extending at least 8kms offshore and southwards to within about 8km of the Sellafield site. The WCM extraction proposals, using continuous mining methods, predict the extraction of approximately 3 million tonnes of coal per year over a 50 year period. This extraction rate will eventually generate a huge subterranean void space of approximately 136 million cubic metres (a volume greater than that of Wastwater Lake).  Subsidence “is expected” beneath Sellafield’s discharged nuclear wastes currently (largely imobilised in the silt, remobilising the nuclear wastes into the water column and back to land.

Now we urge BEIS NOT TO ISSUE COAL AUTHORITY LICENSES for this Coal Mine which would be largely under the Irish Sea.

yours sincerely

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole (a Radiation Free Lakeland Campaign

Health First Priority for Teenagers Opposed to Coal Mine. Hunger Strike is Not the Way – Brave that it is

As we have said before, whilst admiring the passion and commitment of young campaigners we cannot endorse hunger strikes – its a very serious thing to do at any age but in teenagers is really disturbing regards health implications.

Once again we have tried to reach out to the young campaigners and climate groups to ask them not to encourage teenagers to damage their health or risk hospitalisation. Especially as this coal mine has to jump through so many more hurdles – there are lots of ways for young people to get involved in making sure those hurdles are sky high.

The Jogger – Morals and Democracy ?

Below is a Guest Blog from our intrepid Jogger……..

The Jogger!

Hello it’s been a while since my last write up but I have been putting in the kilometres around the streets and harbour side of Whitehaven, adorned with the simple message upon my t-shirt KEEP the COAL in the HOLE. 

Like yourselves, so disappointed that the government minister did not call in this coal mine.

Did you hear our own Marianne on BBC Wireless Cumbria, Mike Zellers Breakfast Show, Thursday 7th January 2021. Here is a YouTube link for you with photo compilation. 

Copeland Conservative MP Trudy Harrison has something to say about the coal mine but she has some facts quite wrong. Our morals and lack of democracy were criticised by the MP. Have a listen, the interview is featured on the video link above.

Mrs Harrison says Whitehaven coal will make £1.8 Billion for the UK GDP in 1^st ten years of production. The UK, a world leader on climate with a 10 point plan Green Industrial Revolution is going to make a heap of money from exporting another fossil fuel. I don’t see how a coal mine is going to make our nation cleaner, greener and more beautiful, certainly not in my back yard anyway. Link below for the Government paper Mrs Harrison mentioned.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ten-point-plan-for-a-green-industrial-revolution

The facts are, WCM coking coal (industrial coal) is not destined for the UK market; UK steel makers can’t use it, too much sulphur and they are phasing out their blast furnaces anyway. So Whitehaven coal will not slash (Trudy’s words) UK imports it will instead add to global coal stocks and further pollution when it is exported. Because Whitehaven coal is to be sold to an agent, WCM have no say where this coal will end up, steel makers or power stations, coal for sale. 

She adds that the planning process is a democratic one, implying that my objecting makes me undemocratic. I am 100% certain that if this coal mine was placed directly in Mrs Harrison’s back yard she would have a very different opinion. I am quite happy with my choice, thank you and will continue to object to this diabolical plan as is my democratic right.

She went on about the need to buy and produce British steel using British coal to make electric cars, nuclear power stations, wind turbines, factories etc because it is “morally” wrong and economically ludicrous to import coal. I can’t see how this coal mine fully accords with the Government’s 10 point Green Industrial Revolution, maybe I am just a Dumbrian?

More pearls of wisdom from our politicians on the Channel4 news report  at the beginning of last year, linked below for you.

Notably is, Mr Mike Starkie, Copeland Mayor talks about the mine being in the poorest area of the country and life opportunity jobs available; for the poorest in our community. Mrs Trudy Harrison ‘ has a common sense approach’ ??

https://www.channel4.com/news/council-approves-plans-to-build-first-deep-coal-mine-for-30-years

So why has WCM gone to all this effort and investment? Where other mining companies have gone before and given up, WCM persist.  WCM has almost halved the coal mines production life span, down to the next 28 years. 100s of planning conditions to plough through and they still want to build their coal mine. 

It seems we may have indication as to why? WCM’s vision of a coal mine extending into radioactive waste management and a Geological Disposal Facility? Coincidentally, the time frame given to debate and find a suitable site in Copeland and build the GDF is about 20 years.

Picture from Haig Pit Museum, Whitehaven

I remember looking at this model of Haig Pit on my visit to the museum years ago. If this model is anything to go by,  is it really a good idea to be digging out millions of tonnes of coal through geological faults; and (potentially) the storage of radioactive waste.

Three facts for you. 1) Coal was created through seismic activity 2) Mining causes earthquakes, a proven fact. 3) the Solway region is seismically active.

The modern mining technology rapidly strips out a seam of coal, creating large voids. Creating large voids and venting gases is asking for trouble, it is bound to unbalance the geological forces off our shores. Yet Cumbria Council have been told by experts that the risks are acceptable. Does that then make Cumbria Council responsible if my worst fears materialise. Such arrogance to think our technology can control Mother Nature. 

Come on Mr Jenrick – let’s have another Conservative U-turn. The planet has a carbon budget and it’s getting smaller. Change your Mind – Call in this coal mine and Keep the Coal in the Hole

TAKE ACTION! We Have Already Delayed the Coal Mine … Now We Need to Stop It.

Dear Friends,THANKS TO ALL who are donating and sharing, writing and campaigning – without you this mine would already be underway!!  We have delayed it repeatedly,  now we need to stop it. The Bad News!Robert Jenrick MP the Communities Secretary has decided not to call in the County Council’s Yes vote for a public inquiry.   The Good News!The UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities have put their weight behind our campaign by urging Cumbria County Council to reconsider the impact of the expected subsidence of the Irish Sea bed and resuspension of the decades worth of radioactive wastes from Sellafield which are currently embedded in the silts of the Cumbrian Mud Patch. Our fight against the mine continues and there are a couple of ACTIONS  people can take right now. 1.  Write to Cumbria County Council urging them to take the advice of the UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities and to reconsider the impact of the expected subsidence of the Irish Sea bed and resuspension of the decades worth of radioactive wastes from Sellafield  which are currently embedded in the silts of the Cumbrian Mud Patch.   On Radio Cumbria’s Mike Zeller show of the 7th January Cumbria County Council were quoted as saying that the radioactive risks of induced seismicity and subsidence are acceptable.   This is an outrageous abdication of the Council’s responsibility to the public’s health and safety.   Ask Cumbria County Council not to issue a final Decision Notice but to take this opportunity to reconsider the expected subsidence and radioactive impacts of this coal mine.   A Template Letter is below – please do write in your own words – there are many reasons why the Council should not issue a Decision Notice – as well as the radioactive impacts there are the climate impacts too. 2.  We are looking at a new legal challenge on radioactive impacts of this coal mine. As before, all monies go direct to top lawyers Leigh Day who have already successfully repeatedly delayed the plan.  The legal challenge would be in my name (Marianne B) on behalf of Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole– Please do share ……..and if you can (I know times are so tough) …..please donate.  DONATE HERE – HELP STOP THE CUMBRIAN COAL MINE  TEMPLATE LETTER (for inspiration) EMAIL Geoffrey.Cook@cumbria.gov.uk Dear Councillor Geoff Cook Woodhouse Colliery Application Reference No. 4/17/9007 Thank you for voting against the amended coal mine plan.   I have heard that the Secretary of State will not be calling this decision in for a public inquiry.   I would be very grateful if Cumbria County Council would take the advice of the UK and Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities and reconsider the impact of the expected subsidence of the Irish Sea bed and resuspension of the decades worth of radioactive wastes from Sellafield (currently embedded in the silts of the Cumbrian Mud Patch).   On Radio Cumbria’s Mike Zeller show of the 7th January 2021 Cumbria County Council were quoted as saying that the radioactive risks of induced seismicity and subsidence are acceptable.   This would seem to be an abdication of the Council’s responsibility to the public’s health and safety.  Please ensure that Cumbria County Council do not issue a final Decision Notice until the expected subsidence and radioactive impacts of this coal mine have been fully considered,  including the ongoing internal review into Sellafield’s Freedom of Information response regarding the Responsibility for Radioactive Wastes on the Irish Sea Bed. Thank you Yours sincerely,  name: address:….. Copy sent to Leader of Cumbria County Council Stuart Young Stewart.Young@cumbria.gov.uk

Cumbria County Council Approves Coal Mine – Again!

After hearing testimony from so many experts and locals opposing the plan from reasons ranging from the loss of ancient woodland, heritage, climate and nuclear impacts – the council have once again approved the plan – with 101 conditions.

This time the Chair and the Vice-Chair voted against the plan the final vote was 12 for – 3 against and 3 abstentions.

Shocking.

There is however a ‘holding notice’ on this decision until the Secretary of State decides whether or not to call the decision in for a public inquiry

Government May Intervene

 MANY THANKS TO LEFT FOOT FORWARD FOR THE ARTICLE – extracts below – full article can be read here

Revealed: Government may intervene in Cumbria coal mine application

Tommy Greene Yesterday

The council is set to approve the mine – but government could over-rule them.

……

“The ministry’s offical continued: “Please be assured that the Secretary of State will give due consideration to your organisation’s representations and those submitted by other parties, when deciding whether to call in the application.”

…

“Planning permission was first granted at the site last November. However, Ms Birkby’s legal challenge has since forced WCM to amend its plans and has pushed the local authority to reconsider the application.”

“Aside from the climate change implications of the project – it is estimated the mine will emit 8.4 million tonnes of CO2 each year – campaigners have pointed to concerns over nuclear waste suspended at a mud patch near the planned extraction area in the Irish Sea.”

FULL REPORT CAN BE READ HERE

Postcards from Cumbria Expo

Postcards from Cumbria Expo is an online multi-media exhibition celebrating Cumbria’s life, geology, wildlife and much more through the distorting lens of past, present and ‘promised’ voids.

 

the sea cannot be depleted

We are delighted to be able to include this thought provoking and poignant work by Wallace Heim.

“the sea cannot be depleted” can be listened to here

Writer and Producer, Wallace Heim describes the project …….

An estuary is continual turbulence. The tidal forces of the open sea move hard against the higher regions of land, the regions from where maps are made. Those maps mark the two lands, split by the tides and softened by the imperative of rivers as they run to the sea. Maps can chart a channel, a changing sandbank, a buried ship, a danger zone. But they cannot show the restless pull of sea and wind. Or mark the intimacies between the life of the sea and the life of the land.

The tides of the Solway Firth are among the most turbulent around this island, a fast sweep from the Irish Sea into the soft sands of the rivers Esk, Eden and Nith. A line across the blank blue of a map etches the division between Scotland and England. The middle of that sea is not a place where humans can live, but we can find sanctuary in the unfolding of life in the tidal muds and in the migrations of the human imagination across the sea surface. The Latin word vastus described the immensity of the sea, its emptiness and its waste.

The UK Ministry of Defence fired at least 30 tonnes of artillery shells containing Depleted Uranium into the Solway Firth, to test those munitions on behalf of an unnamed ‘Customer’. The firings began in the 1980’s from the Kirkcudbright Training Range in Dumfries and Galloway, and on land at Eskmeals in Cumbria. The date of the latest confirmed firings is not certain, possibly 2011 or 2013, and the license to test fire may be continuing beyond that date. The MOD have justified this illegal dumping of radioactive waste into the sea as being ‘placements’. Attempts to retrieve the shells have failed. Their locations are unknown. MOD scientific reports declare that there is no hazard presented to human military or civil populations from this dumping, or from the misfires or contaminated materials on land.

The firings were a rehearsal and were hostile fire on a homeland, not only the infusion of nuclear waste into the wild sea. How can one understand the slow corrosion that remains? What does it mean for a place, a people, to cohere with the unseen objects of war? What is it to be a target? How do you make a life with, or disavow, the symptoms of the civil-military nuclear complex?

Outrage is a power. This arts project intends to transform those energies and make them work in other ways.

‘the sea cannot be depleted’ is not a continuation of the investigative journalism or activist research that brought this situation into the public domain. Instead, three fictional characters speak their thoughts, from both sides of the estuary. Too, this project sees the firings as episodes in the interlocked mesh of relations between the military, the nuclear industries, the arms corporations, capital, colonialism and political desires for international status. Uranium makes the situation timeless and without location. It casts a silence around the sea, and around the human place.

www.theseacannotbedepleted.net

The project is funded by Future’s Venture Foundation.

Voices

Camille Marmié, Vincent Friell, Lisa Howard

Composer & Sound Designer

Pippa Murphy

Writer & Producer

Wallace Heim