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

People demonstrating against the proposed Cumbria coalmine outside the Home Office in London last September. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

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.