A HIGH Court ruling on plans to build a controversial new coal mine in West Cumbria will be handed down tomorrow.

Legal challenges by environmental groups to the government’s decision to approve the mine were heard over a three-day hearing in London between July 16-18.

Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) argued that the decision approved under the last government in 2022 by Michael Gove, was ‘unlawful’.

Less than a week before the hearing got underway, the new Labour government announced that it would not defend the decision to grant planning permission for the new coal mine in Whitehaven.

However the case still proceeded as West Cumbria Mining, the company behind the project, continued to defend the case on its own.

Friends of the Earth campaigners are expected to gather outside the High Court tomorrow morning before the judgment is handed down at 10.30am.

It will be the first court decision on plans for a new fossil fuel development since the landmark ‘Finch ruling’, which saw the Supreme Court rule that the environmental impact from burning coal, oil and gas must be considered in planning applications for new extraction projects. 

If Friends of the Earth and SLACCs legal challenges are successful, planning permission for the mine could be struck down and if that happens, the Communities Secretary and Deputy PM, Angela Rayner, would then have to reconsider the planning application. In doing this, she could call for new evidence or even re-open the planning inquiry.

In a statement published after the High Court hearing, West Cumbria Mining said it had ‘robustly’ defended the legal challenges and a further update would be issued once the decision from the High Court had been received.