Woodhouse Colliery, also known as Whitehaven coal mine, is a proposed coal mine near to

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England. The proposal is for the first deep coal mine in England since Asfordby pit in 1986. The coal mine has been advertised as bringing jobs to a deprived area but has also come in for criticism by green campaigners. In 2019, Cumbria County Council granted the planning permission for the venture. It is not to be confused with the former Woodhouse Close Colliery in Woodhouse Close,

Bishop Auckland Bishop Auckland () is a market town and civil parish at the confluence of the River Wear and the River Gaunless in County Durham, northern England. It is northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham. Much of the town's early history surro ...

(

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

) which operated between 1835 and 1934. The colliery would be the first new deep coal mine in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 30 years. The mine is proposed by West Cumbria Mining and plans to extract coking coal from beneath the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

for 25 years. The plan has been criticised by some MPs, scientists and environmentalists due to the coal mine's environmental impact and compromising the UK government's legal commitments to reduce UK carbon emissions.

History

In June 2014, West Cumbria Mining announced its intention to invest £14.7 million in a venture to explore for premium quality coking coal underneath the sea off

. The project had started before as a plan to find and gasify the coal for energy use, but when the quality of the coal was discovered, it precipitated a shift into mining the coal for steelmaking. It is intended to use the coal only for

coking Coking is the heating of coal in the absence of oxygen to a temperature above 600 °C to drive off the volatile components of the raw coal, leaving a hard, strong, porous material of high carbon content called coke. Coke consists almost ent ...

rather than for the

electricity supply industry The electric power industry covers the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electric power to the general public and industry. The commodity sold is actually energy, not power, e.g. consumers pay for kilowatt-hours, power multiplie ...

(ESI). The fall in the price of ESI coal in the world markets also precipitated the closure of mines using coal only for ESI.Such as Kellingley in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, the last deep coal mine in operation in Britain which closed after a drop in the world coal price. If approved, the mine would be Englands' first deep coal mine since the Asfordby pit was sunk in 1987. The inferred resources suggest that the mine could produce over of coal per year from across a section underneath the

. Backers of the scheme point out that Britain imports of coke per year, of which none is sourced in Europe, with most being from Australia and the USA.This was before the SSI UK steelworks at

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of ...

closed in 2015, imports of coke have dropped in line with demand with supply from Canada stopping completely in 2015. The mine would use former but extant tunnels from previous mining ventures for coal and

anhydrite Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the ...

. The mine head would be located on the former Marchon chemical works site close to

Haig Colliery Haig Colliery was a coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, in north-west England. The mine was in operation for almost 70 years and produced anthracitic coal which is most useful for coking coal. Situated on the coast, the underground workings of th ...

and the suburb of Woodhouse just south of Whitehaven town centre in Cumbria.The Guardian article states that the proposed mine site is ''south of

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

'', but this is incorrect. A letter the following week by Marianne Kirkby amends this error. The proposal would be to mine the carboniferous coal seam up to a maximum depth of . In 2017, a geological team were working offshore from

St Bees Head St Bees Head is a headland on the North West coast of the English county of Cumbria and is named after the nearby village of St Bees. It is the only stretch of Heritage Coast on the English coastline between the Welsh and Scottish borders, an ...

drilling into the rock below the sea bed to a depth of . This will determine the quality of the coal and check for any geological conditions that could affect the planning of the mine. The mine is expected to have a life of 50 years and employ 500 workers with the possibility the area contains over of coal in its reserves. 80% of the output from the mine has been promised to be railed out of the area to

Redcar Bulk Terminal Redcar Bulk Terminal (RBT), also known as Redcar Ore Terminal, is a privately run dock at the mouth of the Tees Estuary in North Yorkshire, England. The port is used for the transhipment of coal and coke (both inward and outward flows) and for ...

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

for export. A conveyor would move the coal from the site to a loader away. Trains would number up to six per day including Saturdays, though the company acknowledge that the increase in traffic on the railway would require signalling improvements on the

Cumbrian Coast Line The Cumbrian Coast line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues (as the Furness line) via Ulverston an ...

. Additionally, West Cumbria Mining have applied to install a solar farm on the estate that would cover and provide 40% of the electricity needs of the mining operation. West Cumbria Mining is owned by EMR Capital, a company based in Australia that has injected over £20 million into the venture by June 2017. A further £200 million was projected to be spent in final testing, acquisition of rights and the implementation of the mine. The facility itself is expected to cost in the region of £165 million. The prospect of England's first new coal mine in over 30 years has prompted anger in parts of the local community with an action group (38 Degrees) starting up with the slogan ''Keep Cumbrian coal in the hole''. The protesters have pointed out that the underground workings would extend to within of the nuclear ponds at

Sellafield Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucle ...

and they also cite the proximity of the mine to a proposed new nuclear facility at Moorside. Another concern is that of the prevalence of methane in the Cumbrian Coalfield. The protest group have pointed out that the dangerous levels of gas made the region an ideal test-bed for the

Davy Lamp The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.A 2004

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS h ...

report details the known gaseous nature of the mines around Whitehaven and stated that the coal was not worthwhile mining for due to the methane and geological instability in the region. The boreholes that this data was taken from were drilled to a depth of but were all undertaken on land, not on reserves under the sea.

Approvals and appeals

In March 2019, a meeting of Cumbria County Council's planning committee voted unanimously in favour of the project citing "the desperate need for jobs, particularly in deprived wards close to the proposed new mine". Green campaigners announced that they would launch a legal challenge. A spokesperson for South Lakes Action on Climate Change, said that the mine would "totally undermine Cumbria's chances of hitting emission targets". In November 2019, the government decided not to intervene in the appeals process and stated the "... umbria CountyCouncil should take the decision". Work on the site is expected to start in 2020, with coaling operations starting in 2022. In exercise of his powers under Article 31 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, the Secretary of State directed the Council, in a letter dated 28 September 2020, not to grant permission to the West Cumbria Mining (WCM) application without specific authorisation. The

Cumbria County Council Cumbria County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria in the North West of England. Established in April 1974, following its first elections held the previous year, it is an elected local government body respon ...

Development Control and Regulation Committee were nevertheless reported to have approved West Cumbria Mining plans for the mine in October 2020 for a third time. In January 2021 Secretary of State Robert Jenrick refused South Lakeland MP

Tim Farron Timothy James Farron (born 27 May 1970) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2015 to 2017. He has also served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmorland and Lonsdale since 2005, before which he worked ...

's request to call in the plans for review, by issuing a letter dated 6 January 2021 withdrawing the Article 31 Direction issued pursuant to the Secretary of State's letter of 28 September 2020. In January 2021 the chair of the

Committee on Climate Change The Climate Change Committee (CCC), originally named the Committee on Climate Change, is an independent non-departmental public body, formed under the Climate Change Act (2008) to advise the United Kingdom and devolved Governments and Parliament ...

(CCC), Lord Deben, sent a letter to Jenrick rebuking him for allowing the planning permission to stand. The government responded that the decision not to call in the coal mine would not be reversed. On 28 January 2021 the Coal Authority announced that on 18 January 2020 West Cumbria Mining had applied for, and been granted, an indefinite extension to the duration of two of their three Coal Authority licences, as both licences were due to run out on 24 January 2021. On 9 February 2021 Cumbria County Council officers told West Cumbria Mining it had decided to return the planning application for Woodhouse Colliery back to their Development Control and Regulation Committee for re-determination. Official portrait of Robert Jenrick crop 2

Official portrait of Robert Jenrick crop 2

In March 2021 Jenrick announced he was 'calling in' the planning application.

Extraction and environmental impact

The mine would extract 2.7m tonnes of coking coal per year, which is used in steel-making. Around 85% of the coal is planned to be exported. It is estimated that the coal extracted from the mine would emit 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, in 2019 the UK's total carbon emissions were 354 million tonnes. The UK Climate Change Committee chair Lord Deben has stated that "this is greater than the level of annual emissions we have projected from all open UK coalmines to 2050."

Economic impact

Supporters of the mine have claimed that supplying coking coal for steel manufacture in the UK would reduce coal imports. West Cumbria Mining have projected the mine would create 500 jobs and said they would pay into a community fund for 10 years. A Facebook page "We Support West Cumbria Mining" has been rallying local support to counter the protests from environmental groups.

Reactions

Some MPs, developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers have criticised the mine. Climate change campaigner

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

criticised the approval of the mine stating: 'The UK government has decided not to intervene with the plans of opening a brand new English coal mine. This really shows the true meaning of so called "net zero 2050". These vague, insufficient targets long into the future basically mean nothing today.'

James Hansen James Edward Hansen (born March 29, 1942) is an American adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best known for his research in climatology, his 1 ...

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the

Earth Institute {{Infobox organization , name = The Earth Institute , image = Ei blue1.gif , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , map2 = , type = , tax_id ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and former director of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in Ne ...

stated approving the mine showed a "contemptuous disregard for the future of young people" and that "It shows they (the government) are really not serious," about climate change. Prof Sir Robert Watson who has worked on atmospheric science issues including

ozone depletion Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone l ...

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and

paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

since the 1980s called the coal mine 'absolutely ridiculous'. MP Tim Farron described the coal mine as a "complete disaster for our children's future".

Greenpeace UK Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to ...

stated "claims that it will be carbon neutral are like claiming an oil rig is a wind turbine." A climate change campaigner went on a 10 day

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

in protest in February 2020. Mohamed Adow, winner of the Climate Breakthrough Award and director of the Power Shift Africa thinktank stated: "It's a bizarre and shocking decision. People in the developing world who are suffering from the effects of the climate crisis will be horrified. They are relying on the UK to be their champion on climate change and be an example, not returning to the dirty days of coal." In February 2021, 40 Conservative Party MPs signed a letter to the local council's Labour leader urging them to approve the project.

References

Notes

Sources

External links

WCM Stakeholder BrochureKeep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodhouse Colliery Coal mines in England Mining in Cumbria Whitehaven Undersea collieries in the United Kingdom