On December 11, 2019, the claimant filed an application for judicial review of Cumbria County Council's decision to grant planning permission for the development of a new underground metallurgical coal mine and associated development in Whitehaven, Cumbria. The claimants argued that the Council had failed to correctly apply the test for new coal projects set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The challenge to the legality of the decision was based on the following grounds: the defendants failed to properly consider the GHG emissions from the mine and provide adequate reasons for their decision; the defendants failed to properly account for the impacts of "middlings coal" in the decision; the defendant failed to give lawful reasons for the imposition of a 15% restriction on the production of middlings coal; the defendant failed to consider the UK Government's Net Zero Target; and the defendant failed to comply with the relevant planning regulations. The case settled in May 2020 after West Cumbria Mining, the project proponents, submitted a revised application for planning permission correcting several of the defects in the original application.

Key environmental legal questions:

Whether the grant of permission for a new coal mine by Cumbria County Council was lawful