What will the mine look like?

We have paid a lot of attention to the mine design and appearance to ensure that it not only is appropriate for the locality but also that the design helps us to achieve our goals of preventing noise, dust and light pollution.

The buildings have been designed to look very different to mining sites of the past and are low level, buried or visually screened to reduce impacts to an absolute minimum. The domed design of the fully enclosed structures is a more attractive and innovative approach and make them more unobtrusive in their environment.

The coal will be processed in a plant which is a ‘building within a building’ to minimise noise, dust and light impact.  This preparation plant will include coverage storage of coal from the mine as well as coal product after washing.

The proposed designs were presented to the local community at a series of public events during 2015, 2016 and 2017. We listened to comments and drew on this feedback in the creation of our final plans, which were submitted to Cumbria County Council in May 2017.

Some of the revisions to our original designs following on from this feedback have included:

• incorporation of more bunding and planting to reduce the visual impact to a minimum
• re-arranging the layout of the site to minimise noise
• reducing the overall height of the buildings
• enclosing the mine drifts to reduce surface noise, dust and light pollution
• creation of a public park area to the north of the site
• a footpath connecting High Road to the coastal path

Below is an updated version of the surface site design.