The High Court has overruled the Secretary of State’s refusal of planning permission for a surface mine for coal extraction in Northumberland on the grounds that he had failed to take account of the biodiversity benefits provided by the mitigation measures in the proposal and had failed to address alternatives to coal in meeting UK energy needs

In the case of HJ Banks and Co Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government [2018] EWHC 3141 (Admin), 23rdNovember 2018, theSecretary of State had called-in an application for a proposed new opencast coal mine at that would extract up to 3 million tonnes of coal, even though the Council had previously resolved to grant planning permission, and then refused planning permission for the mine on the grounds that the development would have an adverse impact on measures to limit climate change as well on the landscape.

The High Court decided that the Secretary of State had erred in giving very considerable weight to the adverse effects of the emission of greenhouse gases, while at the same time failing to take account of the biodiversity benefits provided by the management agreements, as well as giving inadequate reasons on the critical issue of how the UK’s energy needs would be met by low carbon