West Cumbria Mining (WCM) can confirm that it has robustly defended the legal challenges heard in the High Court (held at the Royal Courts of Justice in London) on 16th, 17th and 18th July 2024.
Ahead of the general election, lawyers for the Government (on behalf of the Secretary of State, Michael Gove) submitted a strong defence against all of the grounds of claim on 1st July 2024. On 10th July (less than a week before the hearing was due to commence) the new Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, radically changed position and conceded the claim.
WCM did not agree with this extraordinary U-turn, and as a result (as permitted under court procedures) continued to defend the case on its own.
WCM now awaits the decision of the High Court, with the judgement anticipated to be issued within the next few months.
WCM will issue a further update once the decision from the High Court has been received.