Kent Brooks is quite wrong to claim the proposal for a new coal mine in West Cumbria is a 'minor industrial development on a brown field site' (Letters, March 1, 'A long history of mining').

As we have pointed out in our objection to this scheme, it aims to extract immense quantities of coal over the next 50 years.

Not only is it at odds with UK Climate Change legislation, which aims to see coal phased out, but if fails to make any assessment of its impact on climatic factors, including methane emissions as well as C02.

Coal-mining is a backward step and one of the technologies that threatens the viability of our planet.

Far better, and more responsible for Cumbria, would be to move with the times and look to renewables for a future that is compatible with our stewardship of one of the foremost national parks in the world.

See our website www.cumbrianenergyrevolution.org.uk for ideas as to how we could do this.

Dr Ruth Balogh

West Cumbria & North Lakes Friends of the Earth

Cockermouth