West Cumbria Mining’s licenses to exploit/extract coal onland and under the Irish Sea are due to run out any day. They need new licenses in order to mine both under land and sea!
We have written to Tim Farron MP (see below) asking him to ensure that the Coal Authority Licenses for the first deep coal mine in the UK in 30 years are not renewed in a clandestine and undemocratic manner over the heads of the public without any scrutiny or consultation.
We have also written a brief letter to the Coal Authority which you can see below. Please do write to your own MPs asking them to ensure that the Coal Authority do not rubber stamp new licenses for West Cumbria Mining’s “Woodhouse Colliery”.
With Many Thanks for all your continued opposition to this dangerously crazy plan.
LETTER TO TIM FARRON MP
Dear Tim,
Thank you for your continued stance against West Cumbria Mining’s plan to extract coal from beneath the Irish Sea.
We note that the original conditional licenses given to West Cumbria Mining by the Coal Authority are due to run out.
To run for five years and then they were extended for a further 3 years to the maximum the Authority allow for conditional license.
Which means WCM would need to start renewing licences by 24th January.
To issue West Cumbria Mining with new licenses would be a challenging political decision. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is accountable to Parliament for the activities and performance of the Coal Authority. This means that the decision to issue new licenses to West Cumbria Mining could not be anything other than a BEIS, ie a government approved, decision. The Secretary of State’s ‘get out’ of devolving it to Cumbria County Council, Pontius Pilate like, won’t be available to BEIS.
The world has changed since the Coal Authority issued West Cumbria Mining with licenses 8 years ago. Questions of climate and nuclear safety have been asked about this coal mine. The mine itself would be adjacent to the area being promoted by BEIS as a possible Geological Disposal Facility under the Irish Sea. BEIS is responsible for the provision of and management of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management who advise RWM. The CEO of the coal mine has now been appointed to CoRWM (Nov 2019). Its hard to imagine the proposed coal mine making the laterally neighbouring rocks for a BEIS/CoRWM/RWM promoted GDF become more stable!!
These questions of conflicts of interest of governance have not been answered and deserve full public scrutiny.
We urge BEIS and the Coal Authority not to hand out licenses to West Cumbria Mining over the heads of the public. There should be a well advertised, full public consultation by the Coal Authority over the issuing of new licences to West Cumbria Mining.
Many thanks
Marianne……
LETTER TO THE COAL AUTHORITY
Dear Coal Authority,
We note that the current licenses for West Cumbria Mining are due to run out very soon,
Please could we have confirmation of the dates the licenses are due to be renewed.
Has West Cumbria Mining applied for renewal of these licenses?
All to run for five years and were extended for a further 3 years ?
We note that exploratory boreholes resulting from the Coal Authority”s granting of conditional licenses over the last few years have largely been in the Offshore No 2 area including the one that inadvertently hit a methane gas pocket off St Bees necessitating the call out of the Irish Coast Guard. This area is immediately adjacent to the “site selection” area that is under consideration by Radioactive Waste Management/CoRWM for a geological disposal facility.
We request sight of any new applications by West Cumbria Mining for new licenses and also the opportunity to respond to those applications.
Yours sincerely
Marianne …..
on behalf of Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole (a Radiation Free Lakeland campaign)
Notes:
“As we enter 2021, we can look forward to two events that will help us to shape the global debate. We will host COP26 in Glasgow in November next year, where we will forge a plan and show our friends how we think net zero can be achieved. We will also enjoy the presidency of the G7. Given what has happened in the United States over the last few weeks with the election, there are huge opportunities in the G7 to drive forward this decarbonisation and net zero agenda.” Kwasi Kwarteng was appointed Secretary of State at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 8 January 2021. This quote is from the parliamentary debate on the Future of Coal. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2020-12-03c.489.1
CEO of West Cumbria Mining Mark Kirkbride advises BEIS and RWM “on technical site evaluation criteria and plans for site investigation and characterisation” for a Geological Disposal Facility. Mark Kirkbride’s “Responsibilities:
scrutinise the application of the Site Evaluation and how appropriate it is for specific communities
examine RWM’s long-term planning and programme management initiatives. Provide feedback and informal advice by means of a written report”
Ministerial responsibility 11. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is accountable to Parliament for the activities and performance of the Authority and it is proposed that any new Minister with responsibility for the Authority will carry out a visit to the Authority within six months of taking up appointment to learn about the role of the Authority and its functions. Typically, we would expect the chair and chief executive to meet with the minister at least annually. 12. Specific responsibilities include: approving the Authority’s overall strategic objectives and the policy and performance framework within which the Authority operates (as set out in this framework document and associated documents keeping Parliament informed about the Authority’s performance approving the amount of grant-in-aid/grant/other funds to be paid to the Authority, and securing Parliamentary approval carrying out responsibilities specified in the Act including appointments to the board, determining the terms and conditions of board members, consenting to the appointment of the, approval of terms and conditions of staff (Including pay) in accordance with the latest pay guidance laying of the annual report and accounts before Parliament Framework document April 2019 3 Specific accountabilities and responsibiliti
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
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.
SECRETARY OF STATE WILL NOT CALL IN COAL MINE DECISION
The nuclear safety group Radiation Free Lakeland have been opposing the coal mine under the Irish Sea since 2017 with their Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole campaign. Legal challenges from the group’s founder Marianne Birkby with law firm Leigh Day has seen the plan repeatedly delayed. In October of last year despite evidence presented on the enormous climate and nuclear impacts by various groups and experts, the amended plan received planning permission from (a no longer unanimous) Cumbria County Council. The plan however still needs to be given final planning approval by Cumbria County Council with a “Decision Notice.”
The Secretary of State had previously ordered the Council not to give final approval until his say so. In responding to the group, the Planning Casework Unit on behalf of the Secretary of State Robert Jenrick MP said today “I appreciate that this is not the preferred outcome for you and I understand that there will be great disappointment as a result. It is however, now for Cumbria County Council to determine this application and a copy of our letter to the Council is attached for your information.”
Keep Cumbrian Coal has been continuing with “full on opposition mode” with ongoing ‘protest jogs’ through Whitehaven and banners placed on the Haig Museum lwhich is now being used as West Cumbria Mining’s offices (the Haig Museum land and buildings were bought for just £1 by WCM. The nuclear safety group has just received confirmation that their Freedom of Information requests regarding the “expected subsidence” and resuspension of Sellafield’s radioactive wastes from the sea bed as a result of the coal mine has gone to Sellafield for internal review.
NOTES:
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST TO SELLAFIELD
The question of WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE RADIOACTIVE WASTES ON THE SEA BED? has not been answered. Sellafield reply that they and other agencies are “Monitoring” the radioactive pollution. This “monitoring” is not a substitute for taking responsibility for and avoiding resuspension of decades of discharged radioactive wastes. Instead of working to avoid resuspension Sellafield is actively SUPPORTING the coal mine from which subsidence is “EXPECTED TO OCCUR”. This means that resuspension of radioactive wastes is also “EXPECTED TO OCCUR”. The public expect Sellafield and the nuclear industry to be taking full responsibility for their nuclear wastes by reducing harm not actively inviting it with support for a development which induces seismicity and subsidence. Our question of WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE RADIOACTIVE WASTES ON THE IRISH SEA BED? has not been answered by Sellafield.
From West Cumbria Mining’s own documentation: “4.2 OFFSHORE MINING METHOD CUMBRIAN METALLURGICAL REVISED ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT COAL PROJECT NOVEMBER 2018 PROJECT DESCRIPTION Coal will be predominantly mined off shore in areas known as panels (Figure 9). These panels will typically be some 110 m wide, and can in some cases be over 1 km long, depending on the geological conditions encountered. Up to 60 % of coal within the boundaries of a mining panel may be extracted with 40 % being left behind. It is above these panels that subsidence is expected to occur. At present, the precise location of these panels is indicative and will only truly be established during the mining operation when a greater understanding of the structural geology is gained after accessing the particular area to be mined. None of these panels will be developed under the MCZ.”
This is a first hand account of a recent “Protest Jog” – I never knew Jonathon Swift stayed in Whitehaven – it is easy to see how the young Swift could have conceived Lilliput looking down upon Whitehaven Harbour. Thanks to “The Jogger”
“My Protest jog today begins on the Mirehouse Road. This small road is the main access for the Coal Loading Facility and the Coal mine. I am starting my jog at the entrance to the Coal Loading Facility (Coal Yard)
From here it is almost all uphill to the coal mine site 3KM away. To reach this point in your articulated truck from the main road involves a twisty descent and negotiating a narrow bridge. I draw your attention to this point as recently our council here turned down a housing estate development because of the increase in traffic. No such objection from our borough council for the Mirehouse Road. The residents are in for big changes if this mine is allowed to go ahead.
I start my climb, up to the St Bees Road, past the new housing estate of EdgeHill and up towards the Coal Mine site. Don’t bother looking for any housing estates in the latest aerial pictures of the coal mine, the houses nearby are airbrushed from existence on West Cumbria Minings website. I run past the mine, no poster to put in place today from Keep the Coal in the Hole, today I am heading for a little bit more of our coal mining heritage.
Saltom Mine was England’s first undersea coal mine, started in 1729. It took three years to dig the mine shaft. It is a heritage site, but visiting is very difficult as the access path has washed away with heavy rainfall. I would not recommend a closer inspection, they have left the monument to the sea and is a very unsafe structure.
Just a short distance away is the HQ to West Cumbria Mining at Haig Pit. I drop off a badge for the CEO and advisor to the Nuclear Disposal group, Mr Kirkbride. Of all the tunnelling experts in all the world they had to pick one who wants to build a coal mine.
I head for Whitehaven and take in the view of Candlestick Chimney and Jonathan Swift’s house. It is reputed that the young Jonathan Swift, having been kidnapped by his nanny, lived in this house overlooking the harbour. Could Whitehaven have been the inspiration for Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels. Possible, looking down on the harbour from this lofty height.
The Candlestick Chimney of the former Wellington Pit did catch fire in 1990 when the gases from the coal mine were ignited from a lightning strike. So even today this old coal mine is still polluting the atmosphere. I don’t descend into Whitehaven today for a look at the mermaid, instead I head back under the railway brake that used to deliver coal from Haigh Pit to the harbour and back up to Kells. I want to look closer at another piece of art at Greenbank. A bit more climbing yet to do
The work depicts the legend of a goblet through an industrial age. The artist has painted it to show the transition of Whitehaven from a grim and filthy industrial past into a bright future. The coal mining technology may have changed but the pollution it creates has not. The modern coal mine’s technology only mitigates the pollution, can only offset the carbon emissions. I don’t think the technology or the offsetting is good enough. As the Mining companies consultant tells us, globally 300 million tonnes of coal is exported annually, we should be reducing this. Quickly. As the Chairman to the Development Committee says, the world does not need another Coking Coal Mine. How right he is, what a shame the majority of his committee colleagues see it differently.
Nearly back to my starting point now at Mirehouse Pond, just a short ascent and then it’s downhill all the way. I have run 9.7KM, time for a lie down.
And so the decsion falls at our government minister. We are told the UK is a world leader in the way it is tackling carbon emmissions. I, along with the thousands of others who have objected to this coal mine development wait in anticipation of the right answer. Coal mining is our heritage not our future.
Map of the Cumbrian Mud Patch also known as the Sellafield Mud Patch (BGS image) – the great majority of the Woodhouse Colliery lies beneath the Mud Patch which extends north of St Bees Head and into the Solway Estuary
Many thanks to Tim Farron MP who is asking questions on our behalf – this is his reply to us this week about lack of responsibility by regulators for the safety of radioactive wastes on – and off – Sellafield.
Dear Marianne
Thank you very much for your recent email with regard to the queries you wish to raise about potential seismicity from the mine and your concerns about radioactive waste and the lack of responsible parties.
The approval of the mine by the Cumbria County Council planning committee is a significant backwards step, especially in the midst of a climate crisis, and I was happy to offer my objection to the committee “in person”. Much of this feels like deja-vu having been here only last year. Now we await the Minister’s decision on calling in the application. As you may be aware, I have written to him to urge that he does call in the application and reject it.
I would be more than happy to raise your queries with which I agree. I think they are best raised with DBEIS.
That being the case, I am pleased to confirm that I have written to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to submit your queries for his response. I will write again, when I have received the response.
With best wishes
Yours sincerely
TIM FARRON MP
The following letter was sent to Tim Farron MP to ask :
Who is Responsible for the Cumbrian/Sellafield Mud Patch which lies above the Coal Mine Plan and would be at certain risk of Subsidence?
Full text of the letter below…
Dear Tim,
Thank you for speaking against the plan to open the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades and for writing again to the Secretary of State asking for Cumbria County Councils “decision” to be called in. The council’s vote on 2nd Oct is not final, I suspect (but do not know ) that it would have to be ratified as the Secretary of State has issued a holding notice saying that the council could refuse the application but not approve it – only that they were ‘minded to approve’.
I was cheering your presentation to the council on until the bit where you advocated new nuclear on the greenfields next to Sellafiied. Our view, which is reinforced by empirical evidence, is that the radiological impacts of this coal mine would far outweigh the more obvious and (thanks to the work of Radiation Free Lakeland) acknowledged climate risks. The radiological risks remain a big fat taboo.
The 101 conditions placed on the planning application include several conditions relating to Seismic and Subsidence Impacts. These impacts are not ‘maybes’ they are definite consequences of mass void removal from the West Cumbrian coast largely from under the Irish Sea and the Cumbrian Mud Patch.
These conditions (see below) state that the developer would be responsible for self monitoring the known seismic and subsidence impacts. We know how this played out with Cuadrilla in Lancashire carrying out their own seismic monitoring and investigations.
Given our concerns we would very much appreciate it if you could direct some questions to the BEIS (or whoever you think most appropriate)
The Mayor of Copeland Mike Starkie told the Council in his presentation that Sellafield strongly support the plan. We assume this means the NDA/RWM rather than private contractors at Sellafield?
Decades of Sellafield’s radioactive nuclear wastes have accumulated on “the Cumbrian Mud Patch, a large offshore mudflat lying parallel to the Cumbrian coast, off Sellafield, which acts as a very efficient sink for particle-reactive radionuclides, such as transuranics.” Diagenetic reactivity of the plutonium in marine anoxic sediments (Cumbrian mud patch – eastern Irish Sea) May 2005 Radioprotection 40 DOI: 10.1051/radiopro:2005s1-07912.19Institut national de l’environnement industriel et des risques
Our questions are:
Does Sellafield accept responsibility for the decades of radioactive wastes which have settled on the Cumbrian Mud Patch?
If not, then who does and who would be responsible for resuspension of these radioactive wastes into the sea and ultimately to the shores of Cumbria? The Council? West Cumbria Mining? Radioactive Waste Management? Nuclear Decommissioning Authority? No-one??? Given that WCM will carry out mass void removal and have already drilled ‘exploratory’ boreholes through named faults near the Sellafield plant – The Rachel Fault and the Nethertown Fault – and plan to abstract unknown quantities of fresh water from the Byerstead Fault…..
Who would be responsible for seismic damage resulting in a nuclear accident at Sellafield ?
The Council? West Cumbria Mining? Radioactive Waste Management? Nuclear Decommissioning Authority? No-one???
Many thanks once again for voicing your strong opposition to the coal mine and I hope that you can find the answers to the above questions
yours sincerely
Marianne Birkby Radiation Free Lakeland on behalf of Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole
Further Notes:
There have been many peer reviewed and independent reports indicating that subsidence/disturbance of the Irish Sea bed will resuspend radioactive wastes into the sea. It takes just 4 years for radioactive wastes from Sellafield’s discharge pipeline to reach the Arctic. Far less time to reach our own coasts. The New Scientist has reported that Sellafield “reprocessing plant has released 40 000 billion becquerels of caesium-137. “So far, about 15 000 billion becquerels have reached the Arctic. This is between two and three times more than the contamination from Chernobyl, which is reaching the Arctic via the Baltic and North Seas.” https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15420811-400-sellafield-leaves-its-mark-on-the-frozen-north/
Our own report to the Council from marine expert Tim Deere-Jones highlights the irreparable damage that would be done to people and planet from seismic and subsidence impacts due to massive void removal from under the Irish Sea near Sellafield and directly under the Cumbrian Mud Patch.
CUMBRIA COUNTY COUNCIL CONDITIONS ON WCM’s PLANNING APPLICATION RELATING TO:
SEISMICITY AND SUBSIDENCE
nb WCM would ‘self-monitor’
42 Phasing and Management for Paste Placement
Prior to the commencement of Construction Works, a phasing and management plan for the placement of paste in the mining voids shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The plan shall include details of the phasing of proposed filling activities, the volumes of paste to be transferred to the voids, the location and depth of the voids to be filled, an assessment of any risks associated with the transfer of paste to the identified voids and any mitigation measures necessary to ensure the transfer of paste to the voids to manage the risks identified.
The approved plan shall be implemented and the development shall be undertaken in accordance with the approved details.
Reason: To ensure the proposed development does not pose an unacceptable risk of pollution to controlled waters and to minimise subsidence in accordance with policies DC13 and DC20 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
66.Seismic Activity – Monitoring
No mineral working shall take place until a Seismic Activity Monitoring Scheme (SAMS) for onshore mining has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The scheme shall include the following:
a) the methodology for monitoring seismic activity. This shall identify the potential receptors which will be the subject of monitoring, and the equipment to be utilised for monitoring;
b) the location for the installation of the seismic monitoring array to effectively monitor the seismic activity impacts on the receptors identified at (a); and
c) the arrangements including timescales and frequency of reporting the outcome of monitoring to the Mineral Planning Authority.
Once approved, the SAMS shall be fully implemented prior to the commencement of onshore coal mining and shall continue for a period of 6 years after the cessation of onshore coal mining. All monitoring and reporting shall be undertaken in accordance with the approved scheme.
Reason: To ensure that seismic activity events are monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan
67 Seismic Activity – Investigation
In the event that seismic activity which is attributable to onshore mining activity at any of the receptors identified at condition 66 exceeds a Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) of 6mm/sec the operator shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, carry out an investigation into the reasons for that exceedance. This investigation will confirm whether or not the seismic activity was induced by mining activity and, if so, identify the mining activities taking place, immediately prior to, the time the exceedance was detected. The outcome of that investigation shall be set out in a report and submitted to the Mineral Planning Authority within 7 days of the exceedance for approval in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority.
Reason: To ensure that seismic activity events are monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
68 Seismic Activity – Mitigation
Where a seismic activity investigation has been undertaken and reported to the Mineral Planning Authority under condition 67, and where the conclusion of that investigation is that the seismic activity was attributable to onshore mining operations, within 14 days of the receipt by the Mineral Planning Authority of the investigation report, mineral extraction shall cease and a scheme and programme for seismic activity mitigation shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The scheme shall:
a) provide the rationale for the development of the mitigation measures with reference to the outcome of the investigation;
b) detail the measures to be taken to reduce seismic activity;
c) provide a programme for the implementation of the mitigation measures derived from the investigation report; and
d) provide for an increase in the frequency of monitoring reporting to assess the efficacy of the mitigation measures which have been put in place.
Once approved the scheme shall be implemented in accordance with the approved programme.
Reason: To ensure that seismic activity events are monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
69 Subsidence – Monitoring
No working of minerals shall take place until a subsidence monitoring scheme has been submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The monitoring scheme shall provide for monitoring the potential effects of subsidence on sensitive receptors. The scheme shall include the following:
a) The methodology for subsidence monitoring including establishing the maximum zone of influence of onshore mining by projecting from the outward edge of extraction a line outwards and upwards from the relevant seam at 35o from a line perpendicular to that seam so as to intersect the surface, the methods for recording existing ground levels, method for monitoring changes in ground levels, equipment to be utilised and duration of monitoring following the cessation of onshore mining;
b) The subsidence monitoring locations and the rationale for the number of monitoring points and the locations selected;
c) The frequency of subsidence monitoring, and the rationale for the frequency selected;
d) The arrangements for reporting the outcome of subsidence monitoring to the Mineral Planning Authority which routinely shall be no less than annually;
e) The method for the derivation of trigger subsidence levels at sensitive receptors which would represent a subsidence event; and
f) Proposals for increasing the frequency of subsidence monitoring and for the
reporting of that increased frequency of monitoring to the Mineral Planning Authority in the event that a subsidence event occurs.
Surface subsidence monitoring and reporting shall be undertaken in accordance with the approved monitoring and reporting scheme.
Reason: To ensure that subsidence is monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
70 Subsidence – Investigation and reporting
In the event that a subsidence event occurs, the zone of influence of the sensitive receptor shall be established by projecting downward and inward at an angle of 35o to the depth of seam being worked. Coal production within the zone of influence of the sensitive receptor shall be suspended until a subsidence investigation has been completed. The subsidence investigation shall determine the reason(s) for the subsidence event. The investigation shall review the mining activities taking place prior to the subsidence event being detected and determine which of these activities led to the subsidence event occurring. The findings of the investigation shall be set out in a subsidence investigation report which shall also identify the mitigation measures and a programme to be adopted to prevent a reoccurrence of a subsidence event. Where a subsidence investigation report has been concluded it shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. Any mitigation measures shall be carried out in accordance with the Mineral Planning Authority’s written approval and the approved programme.
Reason: To ensure that subsidence is monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
Subsidence – Mitigation
Coal mining shall only recommence within the zone of influence of the sensitive receptor which was the subject of the subsidence event under condition 70 after the Mineral Planning Authority provide written notification to confirm approval of the investigation report and that the proposed mitigation measures are acceptable. Coal mining within the zone of influence of the sensitive receptor which was the subject of the subsidence event shall thereafter only take place in accordance with the mitigation measures approved within the subsidence investigation report. Reason: To ensure that subsidence is monitored, investigated and mitigated in accordance with policy DC13 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan.
The unanimous green light that Cumbria County Council had given the developers, West Cumbria Mining, has now effectively turned back to amber. Cumbria County Council has confirmed that it will no longer rely on the resolution decision that we were challenging.
This turn around would not have happened without youramazing support for the Judicial Review (which had been granted full approval to go ahead and challenge the County Council’s decision).
West Cumbria Mining has now submitted a revised planning application to Cumbria County Council. This revised plan seeks to answer the legal challenges which were to be brought by us in the Judicial Review.
We believe the true reason why West Cumbria Mining has submitted a revised planning application is to try to defeat our legal challenge.
For example the middlings coal will now, say West Cumbria Mining, with this new plan be magically transformed into coking coal!
Our brilliant lawyers at Leigh Day will now seek costs from Cumbria County Council and WCM, because we have in effect achieved what we set out to do, which was to overturn the council’s unanimous decision to approve the coal mine.
We are seeking legal costs in order to keep our fighting fund for another day. This is should we need the fighting fund after the council’s planning meeting to decide whether or not to approve WCM’s new and improved cunning plan!
So, there is now an opportunity to firstly lobby the council so they do not, yet again, say yes to this revised planning application for the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades.
Should Cumbria County Council say yes again, Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole will challenge that, again!
But first things first – the revised plan can be seen Online via the County Council’s website at: planning.cumbria.gov.uk. Application Ref No: 4/17/9007
Even if you have written in opposition to the plan before please do write again…this is in effect a new plan.
I will send out info soon to help people challenge this revised planning application with your own letters of opposition to Cumbria County Council. We have not got long – the (first) official deadline is June 15th.
The proposed £165M Woodhouse colliery in Cumbria could be “the last [coal mine] ever [built] in the UK”, according to West Cumbria Mining chief executive Mark Kirkbride.
Plans for the coal mine have been called into question amid fears that the facility could hinder the UK’s goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
And Kirkbride believes that the changes to planning regulations means that the Cumbrian facility could be the last coal mine ever constructed in the UK.
“If you asked me to get planning for another one, I would say it would be impossible right now unless something significantly changed,” Kirkbride said at a British Tunnelling Society lecture.
“When we applied for planning it was a different set of planning rules. Now if you were to submit planning you’d have to try and do whole life greenhouse gas assessments.”
However, Kirkbride believes it is unfair for the mine to be accountable for carbon emissions from coal once it leaves the mine.
He added: “The analogy I use is if you build a car factory you look at what the greenhouse impact is of the factory, what you don’t have to do is the life cycle emissions from the cars that you make. That doesn’t apply to the natural resources.
“People think we can determine how much CO2 for the life of the coal we’re producing. The challenge is that populist noise would make it impossible to get it past a planning committee.”
Kirkbride’s comments come amid a government push towards renewables.
This month Boris Johnson announced that the deadline for the phase out of coal from Britain’s energy system would be brought forward a year to 1 October 2024. The last five coal-fired power stations stations – Ratcliffe on Soar, West Burton, Fiddlers Ferry, Kilroot and Drax – are all expected to close.
Meanwhile, domestic coal and certain types of wood are also to be banned from sale from next year in a bid to cut air pollution.
However, the Woodhouse colliery would be excavating coal for use mainly in steel production – a key distinction, according to Kirkbride, who “fully supports” the phase out of coal for electricity.
The proposed development is for a large underground metallurgical, or ‘coking coal’, coal mine.
Coking coal is used exclusively in the manufacture of over 70% of the world’s steel, with more than 1.2bn.t used in global steel production around the world every year.
The coal is ‘baked’ in a coke oven which forces out impurities to produce coke. Modern steel plants include gas treatment and capture to reduce emissions. The steel produced is used in the likes of cars, kettles and trains, as well as in the manufacture of wind turbines and nuclear power stations.
Around 250t of coking coal is required to build an offshore wind turbine, which uses around 325t of steel.
West Cumbria Mining’s website describes these as “key alternatives to historical coal-powered energy generation”.
It adds that coking coal is “very different to thermal coal which is used to create steam to power turbines for creating electricity”.
It concludes that when burnt, the coal extracted from the mine would produce more than 8M.t of carbon dioxide per year – and identifies ways that the amount of coal used in steel production could actually be reduced.
These include using less steel, using recycled steel, improving the efficiency of steel production with conventional blast furnaces, and producing steel with new processes using renewable energy.
The report says opening a new coal mine will hinder this strategy by ensuring the continued availability of cheap coal.
As such, it contests Cumbria County Council’s claim that the mine will be carbon neutral.
Campaign group Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole – run by the group Radiation Free Lakeland – filed the paperwork to launch the judicial review through the solicitors Leigh Day. They are now awaiting the court’s approval for a full hearing.
The mine was granted cross-party backing in March 2019.
A recent article in The Ecologist explains why methane – always known to be a dangerous gas is more dangerous than we thought. Stopping the Coal Mine in Cumbria just got a whole lot more urgent.
“Scientists have been vastly underestimating the amount of methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere through fossil fuels, according to research.
Analysis published in the journal Nature shows methane emissions from fossil fuels owing to human activity is around 25 percent to 40 percent higher than thought.
But researchers believe their findings offer hope, saying stricter regulations to curb methane emissions could help reduce future global warming to “a larger extent than previously thought”.
Ice core
Benjamin Hmiel, a professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Rochester and one of the study authors, said: “I don’t want to get too hopeless on this because my data does have a positive implication: most of the methane emissions are anthropogenic, so we have more control.
“If we can reduce our emissions, it’s going to have more of an impact.”
Walk and Spring Wildlife Watch – date to be confirmed
Dear Friends,
Thank you So Much for keeping on sharing and donating to the CrowdJustice page –everything put in the hat will go direct to the legal fund to take our case to Judicial Review. We are still waiting for a date for our case to be heard – but it will be in Manchester!
Will let you know just as soon as we hear.
In the meantime we are planning a walk along the beautiful (but a bit challenging) cliff top from Whitehaven to St Bees. The walk will include wildlife watching and maybe a bit of drawing too!
Seabirds, guillemots, gulls, ravens and more are all descending on the cliffs to nest so it is an exciting time. This is the only nesting place in England of the black guillemot and the coal mine threatens that , as well as much else! What is left of our wildlife is increasingly important. A date for the walk is yet to be set but watch this space!
Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole 