Opencast mine bid is refused again

The Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, Robert Jenrick, has published his decision on Banks Mining’s application for the Highthorn surface mine between Widdrington and Druridge Bay.

The news has been met with joy by the Save Druridge campaigners, the Green Party and Friends of the Earth.

It is now more than four years since the application was approved by Northumberland County Council, having been submitted in October 2015.

After being called in, it was subsequently recommended for approval by the Planning Inspectorate, but the then Communities Secretary Sajid Javid opted to turn it down in March 2018.

Banks then lodged a High Court challenge on the grounds that there were serious errors in the legal basis on which Mr Javid made his decision, disregarding the recommendation of the Government-appointed inspector following a 14-day inquiry in June 2017.

After a two-day hearing in October 2018, the Honourable Mr Justice Ouseley handed down a decision which found in favour of Banks Mining, describing the reasoning behind Mr Javid’s decision to reject the inspector’s findings as ‘significantly inadequate’.

Paragraph 211 in the latest version of the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework states: ‘Planning permission should not be granted for the extraction of coal unless: a) the proposal is environmentally acceptable, or can be made so by planning conditions or obligations; or b) if it is not environmentally acceptable, then it provides national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh its likely impacts (taking all relevant matters into account, including any residual environmental impact).’

In the latest decision, Mr Jenrick concludes that ‘the substantial extent of the landscape harm means that the proposal is still not environmentally acceptable, nor can it be made so by planning conditions or obligations’.

He also concludes that ‘the proposed development is not likely to provide national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh its likely impacts’, as while he ‘gives moderate weight to the economic benefits which will flow from the proposal, moderate weight to the biodiversity benefits and no more than moderate weight to the need for coal’, he also ‘affords considerable weight to the harm to the character and appearance of the area’ and ‘attributes great weight to the harm to heritage assets’.

Lynne Gargett, from the Save Druridge group, said: “Save Druridge is ecstatic at the eventual outcome of the application by Banks Mining to opencast coal at Druridge Bay.

“We started our fight back in 2013 and we are pleased it has now come to a close and Druridge Bay and the surrounding area will remain as it is beautiful and tranquil.

“The Secretary of State has stated the proposed development is NOT likely to provide national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh its likely impacts. It therefore fails the test required of the Planning Policy Framework.

“We do not need this coal. All Banks Mining was doing was contributing to a national and international climate emergency.

“We would like to thank the hundreds and thousands of supporters of our cause. Special thanks to Alnwick Friends of the Earth and The Green Party both locally and nationally. We also wish to thank everyone who contributed to our legal costs and those who regularly helped with events and fund-raising. We could not have done this without you. Thank you so much.”

The 17-page decision letter does mention ‘the circumstances in which the validity of the Secretary of State’s decision may be challenged’ through an application to the High Court within six weeks.

Gavin Styles, executive director at Banks Mining, said: “We will now review the precise reasons for this decision before agreeing on the most appropriate steps to take.”

He added: “At a time when our region and country is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, this decision effectively hands the much-needed and valued jobs of our North East workforce to Russian miners, who will be delighted to meet British industry’s continuing need for coal while simultaneously significantly increasing global greenhouse gas emissions.

“This decision won’t solve the problem, but will instead make it worse.

“We are grateful to the thousands of people and businesses who have given their backing to this project, including our colleagues and their families, our suppliers, customers and business associates, and the politicians who recognise the reasons why it is important for British industry to have a locally-based coal source.

“We are just so very saddened that this misplaced decision stops us from being in a position to offer them and the many people living in the surrounding communities who supported the Highthorn application the continued support through jobs and investment that they so richly deserve and need.”

A statement from The Green Party in the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency said that it “wholeheartedly welcomes the Government’s decision”.

It adds: “The campaign against this proposal has taken five years of persistence and hard work by local residents, led by the Save Druridge Group and supported by people from across the country.

“Northumberland was the cradle of coal mining in the UK, and is rightly proud of the role its communities played in the industrial revolution and of the strength and resilience of those communities. Having been at the forefront of one industrial revolution, this decision means that Northumberland can now be at the forefront of the next one, and lead the way into a post-carbon future.

“Druridge Bay was at the centre of failed attempts to build a nuclear power station in the 1980s, and plans for sand extraction pits in the 1990s. With the rejection of this latest attempt at exploitation, the public has a right to expect that nature will now be allowed to thrive.

“The scale of the structural and financial task required to stabilise the climate and avoid catastrophe is both immense, and international. The response to the current Covid-19 crisis has shown that isolationist and populist policies do not work in the face of a global crisis but, with proper leadership, the public are equal to such huge challenges. This is one step in the right direction, and we applaud it.”

The decision has also been welcomed by Friends of the Earth, with climate campaigner Tony Bosworth saying: “The rejection of planning permission for a destructive opencast coal mine at Druridge Bay is fantastic news for our environment, and a tremendous victory for local campaigners.

“With the world staring at catastrophic climate change, this is the right decision.

“Coal mines must be consigned to the history books if we are going to avoid climate breakdown.

“Let’s leave coal in the ground where it belongs, and invest in energy saving and renewable power to build the safe, clean and fairer future we so urgently need.

“It’s time for Banks Mining to walk away from Druridge Bay and further legal challenges, and abandon plans for any more new mines.”

The decision has been branded as economic and environmental vandalism by the Unite union.

Unite regional officer Steve Cason said: “The Government’s refusal to give planning permission to the new coal mine flies in the face of logic and is an act of economic and environmental vandalism.

“Over four years ago, an independent planning inspector gave the go ahead for the Highthorn development and this has now been overruled for purely political purposes.

“With the UK and the North East in particular already reeling from massive job losses, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, this decision is inevitably going to mean that more skilled, well paid workers face redundancy.

“A responsible Government would be doing everything possible to preserve employment and not needlessly throwing workers onto the dole queue.

“This decision does nothing for the environment. Industry still requires coal for its industrial processes and that coal will now have to be imported, dramatically increasing greenhouse emissions.

“The Government must revisit this decision and reverse its ruling.”

There has been further support for the decision elsewhere, with the MP for Berwick, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, describing it as “incredibly welcome to all of us who have campaigned to protect our precious coastline, and the community in Druridge Bay who have had the spectre of this proposition hanging over them for a number of years”.

“The Prime Minister was clear when he brought forward our goal to stop producing coal to 2024 that this Government will honour its commitments to a cleaner, greener future, and our target of net zero by 2050,” she added.

“This long-fought battle to protect our local environment has been a culmination of years of work by local people, groups and politicians of all parties, coming together to work for the future of their community, and I pay tribute to everyone who has played their part in safeguarding our incredible landscape for future generations.”

And a ‘grateful and relieved’ chief executive of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Mike Pratt, said: “From the outset, this was always a difficult proposal to accept from an environmental point of view.

“It sits next to a Site of Special Scientific Interest – Cresswell Pond, which we conserve for wildlife and forms part of a seven-mile sweep of beach, dunes and fields which are extremely important for birds and for people who come to marvel at the spectacular scenery.

“It would have been totally unacceptable to open a coal mine in the middle of a climate and extinction crisis and to try to do so during a world-wide health crisis would have been totally inappropriate.

“The coal industry is proven outmoded. We need clean and green solutions to energy and employment moving forward. With coal being phased out by the Government in five years, it would have been a travesty to start mining at this point. It is a shame that previous decisions to halt it were not lived up to earlier to prevent such a waste of money and time.

“This is a great result for nature, the climate and communities, and signals that this Government is taking climate breakdown measures very seriously.”