Cumbria coalmine decision delayed again as critics condemn ‘zombie’ No 10

theguardian.com:

A much-anticipated decision on whether the UK’s first new deep coalmine in more than 30 years should go ahead has been delayed again.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) has written to Friends of the Earth to inform the organisation that the new secretary of state, Greg Clark, has set a new deadline of 8 November to rule on whether the coalmine should be granted planning permission.

The letter said: “This is a complex matter and officials are not yet in a position to complete their considerations prior to providing advice to ministers.”

An earlier July deadline was postponed until 17 August after Conservative MPs ousted Boris Johnson, the fallout of which resulted in the then levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, being sacked and a protracted leadership race being called. The decision is one of a number of major calls that are being delayed at present across a range of government departments, leading to opposition criticisms of a “zombie government” at No 10.

The controversial proposals to extract up to 2.7m tonnes of metallurgical coal a year from underneath the Irish Sea have stirred up strong local feeling within Cumbria and were subject to a public inquiry last September.

Supporters of the mine have criticised what they see as the latest delay to West Cumbria Mining’s (WCM) planned project that promises hundreds of jobs for west Cumbria.

The Copeland borough mayor, Mike Starkie, said in reaction to news of the delay: “It is outrageous and totally unacceptable. The inquiry was in November 2021 and the planning inspector submitted his report to government in April, it was in my opinion stretching it with no decision before July and should not have been extended to August.

“To now move the goalposts