The company behind plans to build a new coal mine in Cumbria has not lodged an appeal against last month’s High Court decision to strike down planning permission.

West Cumbria Mining (WCM) did not file papers with the court by the appeal deadline, Friends of the Earth confirmed this morning.

The High Court quashed planning permission for the mine, granted by the previous government, following a challenge by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC).

In a decision issued last month, the judge accepted all four grounds of the Friends of the Earth challenge and all but one from SLACC.

The judgement was influenced by a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court in a separate legal challenge, brought by Sarah Finch over climate emissions from using onshore oil.

The local government secretary, Angela Rayner, must now reconsider the original coal mine planning application, unless WCM withdraws the application and abandons the project.

Viability and subsidence concerns

Last month, the Coal Authority refused to grant licences for the mine.

In a report published earlier this month, the authority said there were two “fundamental” issues behind its refusal: subsidence and viability.

On subsidence, the authority said there was a “significant disparity” between its own predictions and those from the company.

It said this prevented the authority from “having a sufficient and reasonable understanding on the nature and extent of subsidence that may be caused by the Project.”

On the viability of the coal mine, the authority said the “overall financial prospects for this Project are unacceptable”. It concluded that WCM’s financial plans “do not demonstrate that the Project is financially viable”.

It concluded that:

“the Project is not best calculated to secure, so far as practicable, that an economically viable coal-mining industry in Great Britain is maintained and developed.”

The authority said there were “significant uncertainties” over working methods, subsidence risk, the quality of coal available, geological conditions, the market for coal produced and the level of coal that exists and would be able to be extracted.

Friends of the Earth energy campaigner, Tony Bosworth, said today:

“[the] decision by the Coal Authority to refuse coal mining licences for the proposed development, underlines the fact that this mine is effectively dead in the water.

“WCM must now accept the inevitable and walk away from this development. If they don’t, Angela Rayner should bang the final nail into the coffin of this destructive and unnecessary mine by refusing planning permission.

“The government must now develop an ambitious plan to accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon future, with top priority given to areas like West Cumbria to ensure they get the jobs, hope and prosperity they so urgently need.”

• This morning, campaigners blocked the entrance of the Horse Hill oil site, the focus of the Sarah Finch case, in protest at its continued operation, despite the Supreme Court quashing its planning permission.

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