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Opinion

Why I switched sides to stop UK’s first deep coal mine in more than 30 years from opening

South Lakes Action on Climate Change’s Maggie Mason worked at the local council when the idea of reopening coal mines was first mooted. She explains why she stood against the Tory government to stop the plan and save the environment

A plan to extract coal from under the Irish Sea off the Cumbria coast suffered a killer blow last week. It had been given permission by Michael Gove in December 2022, when Gove was secretary of state in charge of planning and local government. Last Friday the permission was “quashed” by the High Court.

I first saw the birth of an idea to reopen the coal seams in 2012, as a minerals and waste planner at Cumbria County Council, but I became a key opponent, sitting with a legal team during the High Court hearing this July, and inside the small circle who saw the draft judgement five days before the announcement.

This is the inside story. Why did a small charity throw so much time and effort at this, and what did we achieve? 

South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) began in 2007 as a climate education charity. It had no employees and used small grants on “ecofairs” and encouraging home retrofits, but in 2009 we organised a minibus trip to Copenhagen for COP15, and in 2015 travelled to Paris for COP15. Kendal, our hometown, was reeling from devastating floods as we met people from around the world who were already being hit by climate change. This was getting close to home!

The planning application was submitted in 2017 and the local Friends of the Earth group were objecting to it. A fellow member of SLACC opposed it personally and knowing my work background, he asked me to write an objection too.  SLACC trustees agreed I should object in SLACC’s name.

This is how we ended up with ‘standing’, giving SLACC the right to become a main party at the public inquiry, and then launch a legal challenge against the decision to approve the mine. Friends of the Earth had ‘standing’ too, because their West Cumbria local group had been objecting to the mine from the beginning.

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The Australian-owned and Cayman Island-registered hedge fund behind the plan wanted to extract and export coal until 2070. They claimed it would bring 500 direct jobs, plus indirect employment, to west Cumbria and would supply the UK steel industry with coal, but they were refusing to take any account of the emissions from the use of the coal they would extract. They even said the mine would reduce global emissions because overall transportation emissions would be lower if a UK mine supplied the UK and Europe rather than a US mine.

In case the council, and later courts, insisted that emissions from the use of the coal were indirect effects of the extraction, the mining company claimed that their coal would replace or “substitute” for coal from existing mines, so the mine would be completely net zero.

I knew that planning law and environmental legislation meant that the benefits of jobs and economic gain should have been weighed against any direct or indirect harms from the greenhouse gas emissions. To do that, all the emissions needed to be rationally estimated. A SLACC colleague did a calculation from official figures on emission from coal use in steel making. It was also clear that the coal was for export, not for the UK.

I also knew we needed good lawyers, as early as possible. We clubbed together to pay the initial costs and later started fundraising. Friends of the Earth came fully on board too.

Our legal team were also working on the Horse Hill oil well case, which was finally resolved in the “Finch” Supreme Court Judgement on 20 June. Combustion emissions were confirmed as indirect and inevitable effects of the extraction of fossil fuels.

On the 10 July the government conceded our case, realizing that West Cumbria Mining’s substitution “get out clause” was all the Cumbria coal case was now hanging on. On Friday 13 September, Justice Holgate ruled that Gove’s decision to approve the coal mine was unlawful: it had been muddled and inconsistent and harmed the UK’s climate leadership. Any oil or gas well, or coal mines, claiming that their product would replace existing sources of supply had to prove it in their environmental impact assessment. In most cases the harms will outweigh the benefits and the proposal should be turned down.

As a planning officer, I had seen the old chemical works that would be the site of the mine. I knew that the risks were being sidestepped, and the quality of the coal being misrepresented. These were factors in SLACC’s decision to fight the mine, although we never got them into public view and we received some criticism for blocking new jobs. There was very strong opposition from some now ex-Conservative politicians linked to anti-net-zero campaigns, and unofficial spokespeople for the mining company.

Which ‘side’ do you take?

SLACC has called on the government to provide new green jobs.  They do not need to be on the old and highly polluted chemical works that was meant to be left largely undisturbed to keep toxic chemicals “locked in”. Instead of tree coppicing and public open space, Whitehaven was offered a new coal mine. The fences around the coal mine site should come down, and the informally re-wilding site officially and permanently designated as public open space. This is what the people of Whitehaven were promised.

Maggie Mason is a member of South Lakes Action on Climate Change.

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