All Hallows Eve – 1st Anniversary of Cumbria County Council Ratification of Coal Mine

Today is the first anniversary of Cumbria County Council’s 31st Oct 2019 ratification of their outrageous decision to approve the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades. Today has brought back memories of being told to “get a conscience” by the CEO of the coal mine. I didnt know then that he was to be appointed just days later to the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management. Injustice piled on injustice – this coal mine would create a massive void below the decades of #Sellafield discharge waste. #KeepCumbrianCoalintheHole

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

Today is the first anniversary of Cumbria County Council’s 31st Oct 2019 ratification of their outrageous decision to approve the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades.

It has brought back a few memories, not least being sat there in the council chamber after the unanimous decision by the council to approve the vote, I was sat alone as others had already left.

As I sat there dejected wondering how to continue opposing this plan, the triumphant Chief Executive Officer of West Cumbria Mining walked past me and said “You should get a conscience Marianne.”

Too surprised to respond I said nothing back.  Remember he had just won another massive victory in getting his mine approved for the second time. 

I didn’t know then that the CEO of West Cumbria Mining was to be appointed within a few days of that council meeting to the Committee on Radioactive…

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90% of Sellafield’s Discharged Plutonium Wastes are on the “Cumbrian Mud Patch” Below which Lies the Coal Mine Plan

RADIATION FREE LAKELAND

Graphic from New Report Published in Science
of the Total Environment “Controls on anthropogenic radionuclide distribution in the Sellafield-impacted Eastern Irish Sea”
Daisy Ray et al.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720342893

This information has been sent out to press on numerous occasions. So far it has not been picked up. A letter (another one!!) has just been sent to the Secretary of State reiterating nuclear concerns re the coal mine and asking that he calls Cumbria County Council’s decision in.

PRESS NOTICE

A Nuclear Safety group based in the South Lakes have sent a ‘Nuclear Issues’ Call In letter to the Secretary of State over the Cumbrian Coal Mine
Radiation Free Lakeland’s Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole campaign has repeatedly delayed the start date of the Coal Mine. This delay has, say the nuclear safety group, been achieved by legal challenge with the help of lawyers Leigh Day. The nuclear safety group continue…

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90% of Sellafield’s Discharged Plutonium Wastes are on the “Cumbrian Mud Patch” Below which Lies the Coal Mine Plan

Graphic from New Report Published in Science of the Total Environment “Controls on anthropogenic radionuclide distribution in the Sellafield-impacted Eastern Irish Sea”  Daisy Ray et al.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720342893 This information has been sent out to press on numerous occasions. So far it has not been picked up. A letter (another one!!) has just been sent to the …

Protest Jog – Keep the Coal in the Hole

Thanks to “The Jogger” a first hand account of a Protest Jog against the diabolic Coal Mine plan near Sellafield. I didn’t know that Whitehaven Harbour could’ve been the young Jonathon Swift’s inspiration for Lilliput.

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

This is a first hand account of a recent “Protest Jog” – I never knew Jonathon Swift stayed in Whitehaven – it is easy to see how the young Swift could have conceived Lilliput looking down upon Whitehaven Harbour. Thanks to “The Jogger”

“My Protest jog today begins on the Mirehouse Road. This small road is the main access for the Coal Loading Facility and the Coal mine. I am starting my jog at the entrance to the Coal Loading Facility (Coal Yard)

From here it is almost all uphill to the coal mine site 3KM away. To reach this point in your articulated truck from the main road involves a twisty descentand negotiatinga narrow bridge. I draw your attention to this point as recently our council here turned down a housingestate development because of the increase in traffic. No such objectionfrom our borough council forthe Mirehouse Road. The residents are…

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Petitions: Secretary of State – AND Cumbria County Council

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

A Coal Mine Under the Irish Sea ??? NO THANKS!! Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

Dear Friends,

Here is a petition from Coal Action Network to the Secretary of State asking for Cumbria County Council’s decision to be called in https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-cumbria-coal-mine

Our own original petition which Tim Farron MP delivered to the Secretary of State on our behalf and which importantly flags up nuclear impacts can still be signed here : https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-cumbrian-coal-in-the-hole-its-too-near-sellafield

Given that the Secretary of State ordered Cumbria County Council NOT to approve the planning application until his decision, the County Council may well be obliged to ratify their 2nd October decision – there is our petition to them here – please keep signing and sharing https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-new-coal-mine-in-cumbria

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LABOUR OPPOSE THE FIRST DEEP UK COAL MINE IN DECADES

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

Protest banners are continually removed from the fences of the site – contrast this with that other defunct fossil fuel plan in Lancashire. At least the frackers, Cuadrilla allowed protest banners on their fences!

Following a direct question to Labour HQ from environmental journalist Donnachadh McCarthy,Labour has stated:

“Labour is very concerned about the environmental and long-term economic ramifications of approving the UK’s first deep coal mine in forty years.

”This project will not help us fight the climate emergency, nor will it provide the long-term job security that Cumbrians deserve as the UK rightly moves towards a green economy.

“We believe this project should be called in by the Government on the grounds of compliance with national net zero commitments.

“But this underlines why the Government needs to support the transition to a green economy, including greening the steel industry, which would create stable, high-skilled jobs in local communities…

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A Letter to The Queen on the Anniversary of the Windscale Fire. Coal and Nuclear Do Not Mix.

Remember the Windscale Anniversary.

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

The following letter has been sent to the Queen along with a covering letter to the Crown Estate.

Madam,

Your Majesty’s love of wildlife is legendary and impressively includes reportsthat Your Majesty refused to let staff meddle with the bats at Balmoral, “despite the extra cleaning work that they generate.”

Here in Cumbria wildlife from bats in ancient woods to black guillemots on St Bees Head are under threat along with so much more from the plan to open the first deep coal mine in 30 years. The coal mine would largely be under the Irish Sea.

Your Majesty’s Crown Estate has a direct role to play in either facilitating or stopping this plan in its tracks. Her Majesty’s Crown Estate signed an Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining on 21st July 2017. This agreement ran out on 2nd October 2020.

Also on 2nd October 2020 Cumbria County Council approved…

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Stop the Plan In Its Tracks – Petition Her Majesty Not to Sign New Agreement with Planned Coal Mine

please sign and share – Her Majesty the Queen has to sign a new agreement with West Cumbria Mining for the Mineral Rights of the Coal lying under the Cumbrian Mud Patch- if she refuses to do this the plan (instead of everything else) is dead in the water #KeepCumbrianCoalintheHole

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

To:Her Majesty The Queen

No Agreement to Exploit Crown Estate Coal Reserves Under The Cumbrian Coast

The plan for the first deep coal mine in 30 years requires Her Majesty to agree to an Exploitation agreement with the developers, West Cumbria Mining, in order to extract the coal. We the undersigned plead with Her Majesty to Please be on the right side of history and Refuse to sign the Crown Estate agreement with West Cumbria Mining for Exploitation of Coal Reserves under the Irish Sea five miles from Sellafield and directly beneath the radioactive Sellafield/Cumbrian Mud Patch.

Why is this important?

Local campaigners have been opposing this plan on the grounds of intolerable climate and radiological damage since 2017.

Her Majesty now has a direct role to play in either facilitating or stopping this plan in its tracks.  Her Majesty’s Crown Estate signed an Exploration Agreement with West Cumbria Mining…

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Who is Responsible for the Cumbrian/Sellafield Mud Patch which lies above the Coal Mine Plan?

Many thanks to Tim Farron MP who is asking questions on our behalf – this is his reply to us this week about lack of responsibility by regulators for the safety of radioactive wastes on – and off – Sellafield.

Dear Marianne

Thank you very much for your recent email with regard to the queries you wish to raise about potential seismicity from the mine and your concerns about radioactive waste and the lack of responsible parties.

The approval of the mine by the Cumbria County Council planning committee is a significant backwards step, especially in the midst of a climate crisis, and I was happy to offer my objection to the committee “in person”.  Much of this feels like deja-vu having been here only last year.  Now we await the Minister’s decision on calling in the application.  As you may be aware, I have written to him to urge that he does call in the application and reject it.

I would be more than happy to raise your queries with which I agree.  I think they are best raised with DBEIS.

That being the case, I am pleased to confirm that I have written to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to submit your queries for his response.  I will write again, when I have received the response.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

TIM FARRON MP

Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole

Map of the Cumbrian Mud Patch also known as the Sellafield Mud Patch (BGS image) – the great majority of the Woodhouse Colliery lies beneath the Mud Patch which extends north of St Bees Head and into the Solway Estuary

The following letter has been sent to Tim Farron MP to ask :

Who is Responsible for the Cumbrian/Sellafield Mud Patch which lies above the Coal Mine Plan and would be at certain risk of Subsidence?

Full text of the letter below…

Dear Tim,

Thank you for speaking against the plan to open the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades and for writing again to the Secretary of State asking for Cumbria County Councils “decision” to be called in. The council’s vote on 2nd Oct is not final, I suspect (but do not know ) that it would have to be ratified as the Secretary of State…

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2017 – Demo’s and Walks

Wastwater Chronicles

2017 Demo’s and Walks

from the Whitehaven News 2017… before “Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole” was a thing …..

• NEWS

13th September 2017

Campaigners protest over coal mining plans

By Sarah Robinson

Cumbrian coal in the Hole campaigners protesting over Whitehaven coal mining plans.0comment

Protesters are fighting against new mining plans for West Cumbria.

Campaigners were out in force at Bowness Bay on Sunday, protesting against the proposals by West Cumbria Mining.

The plan is for coking coal to be mined off the coast of St Bees and be moved via an underground conveyor to new processing and storage buildings on the former Marchon site at Kells.

But campaigners believe the proposed site is dangerously close to Sellafield.

Marianne Birkby, Radiation Free Lakeland campaigner, said: “This is a small but determined rally, people have travelled from West Cumbria, Lancaster and even as away as London to stand in…

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