A High Court has quashed a planning application for the UK’s first coal mine in 30 years amid backlash from climate groups.
Friends of the Earth (FoE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) brought legal action over a 2022 Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government decision to grant planning permission for the site at Whitehaven in Cumbria.
The Government had previously accepted that around 15 per cent of the coal would be used domestically.
Justice Holgate said in a ruling on Friday that giving the green light for the development was “legally flawed”.
At a hearing in July, lawyers for FoE said the decision “smacked of hypocrisy” given the UK’s “vocal international advocacy” over the phase-out of coal in energy systems.
More to follow…
Source Agencies
