MR KENT Brooks, (Letters, May 10, 'Defence must be priority') is, of course, entitled to his opinion about the proposed coal mine near Sellafield.

However, my opinion, having had a coal face worker in the family for many years, remains the same. Excavating a very deep coal mine beneath the Irish Sea, so close to Europe's largest nuclear waste facility at Sellafield, is a risk too far.

In any case, we should not be mining coal at all, if we are serious about trying to mitigate climate change and rising sea levels.

Anita Stirzaker

Windermere