On 21 September The County Council informed SLACC’s coal mine team about a “Response to Objections document” that West Cumbria Mining had submitted to them 10 days before. It is 90 pages long and can be found here on the CCC planning site or alternatively use our links below.
Notifying us so close to the Committee on 2 October gives objectors very little time to study it and respond. Why did they hold on to it for 10 days before telling us? See bottom of this post for our latest response to this.
THE MAIN WCM RESPONSE DOCUMENT can be seen here. It also has 4 appendices as follows:
· Appendix 1: AECOM’s Response to specific points raised by SLACC.
· Appendix 2: Dr Bristow’s Response to specific points raised by SLACC and others.
· Appendix 3: A Note on the Coke Making Process and Sources of High Vol A Coal into Europe (with specialist input from Hugh Bbbage).
· Appendix 4: Coking Coal Demand Forecast, prepared by Wood Mackenzie.\
SLACC’s lawyers have today (22 September 2020) issued a letter to Cumbria County Council asking for assurances that the decision on the West Cumbria Coal Mine be delayed by at least 14 days , which would mean to the next available Development Control and Regulation Committee. This is so that objectors to the planning application have sufficient time to consider the large amount of new evidence submitted by West Cumbria Mining, which was not made public until after office hours on the 21st September. The Council has been asked to confirm that the application will not be determined on the 2 October as had previously been stated by the Council.