THE public inquiry into the application to build a controversial £160m coal mine in West Cumbria began yesterday.

After unprecedented national and global concern, a four-week inquiry began yesterday which saw the mining giant face public scrutiny of its plans for a new coal mine near Whitehaven.

The mine would be the UK’s first new deep coal mine for 30 years and is intended to provide coking coal for the steel industry until 2049.

The inquiry - which was conducted online - is expected to last around four weeks. The planning inspector will make a recommendation to communities secretary Robert Jenrick, with a final decision expected by Spring 2022.

Solicitors for West Cumbria Mining, Cumbria County Council and Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate delivered their opening statements.

Speaking on behalf of West Cumbria Mining, solicitor Gregory Jones said: “Coal is an emotive word that’s seen as a major contributor to climate change and as an obstacle towards a net-zero economy, but of course, this coal in relation to this development is not thermal coal, it’s high-quality coking coal, essential, we say, for the primary steel manufacturing.”

“It’s all too easy to object to this development that it’s a coal mine, coal is dirty or bad, but the reality is some industries, especially the steel industry, will continue to need coal for many years.”

Tory MPs and the local council had backed the project, arguing it would bring 500 much-needed jobs and investment to the region.

However, green campaigners and South Lakes MP Tim Farron, who attended yesterday’s inquiry, argue against the plans which Mr Farron described as ‘environmentally backwards’.

He said: “I was really grateful for the opportunity to speak on the first day of the public inquiry into the Cumbrian coal mine.

“I have long been fighting for these environmentally backwards plans to be axed and for the Government instead to be focusing on bringing renewable jobs to Cumbria.

“With at least 87 per cent of the coal from this mine set to be exported to other countries, and with the steel industry desperately needing to move away from using coking coal, there is no environmental or economic case for this mine.

“I sincerely hope that this inquiry leads to the Secretary of State finally saying no to the opening of a new coal mine in Cumbria.”

Boris Johnson has made coal one of the top priorities for the forthcoming Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow this November.

The Prime Minister said: “We know what must be done to limit global warming – consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline.”

A supporter for environmental campaigner group XR Furness described the proposal as ‘insanity’.

He said: “It would be insanity to open a new coal mine at a time when fires, floods and drought are ravaging the planet and the International Panel on Climate Change has given a ‘code red’ warning on the future of humanity itself.

“But it’s feared that the inquiry might consider only the impacts of the mining and not even take into account the emissions that would be produced by actually burning the coal - about nine million tonnes of CO2 a year. This would be incompatible with the UK’s climate change commitments, according to the government’s Climate Change Committee.

“Experts will tell the inquiry the coal the mining company hopes to dig up and sell is not the high quality coking coal it claims and that steel making without using coal will in any case grow rapidly from 2024.

“The ‘substitution argument’ that the mining company uses to say the mine would cause mines elsewhere to close has been described as ‘economically illiterate’.

“To approve the pit would be hypocrisy when the UK, as host of the international climate talks in Glasgow in November, is calling on other countries to abandon fossil fuels.”

However, others are highlighting the benefits of producing our own coal under ‘tight environmental controls’ in the UK.

Simon Fell, MP for Barrow and Furness, said: “The proposed mine will produce is coking coal which is required for making steel. Every single renewable technology we are supporting and promoting needs new steel, so either we continue to import coking coal from Australia - and countries like Russia with no environmental safeguards to speak to - or we produce it here under our own tight environmental controls, helping domestic steel production and limiting the use of Russian or Chinese coking coal by not just the UK, but our European neighbours too.”