Campaigners opposing plans to create a deep coal mine in West Cumbria are attempting to recoup the money they spent on a legal challenge.

Cumbria County Council gave permission to West Cumbria Mining to go ahead with the project last year.

It would see the company extract coking coal off the coast of St Bees, with a processing plant on the former Marchon site at Kells.

But Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole submitted the legal challenge, with a judicial review hearing due to be heard later in the year.

The challenge has now been dropped, after West Cumbria Mining’s plans have been amended, with the council’s planning panel due to consider the changes soon.

Now the campaigners are seeking to recoup their legal costs.

Marianne Birkby, of Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole, submitted the legal challenge with support from legal firm Leigh Day.

Ms Birkby said: "We have in effect achieved what we first set out to do, which was to overturn the council’s unanimous decision to approve the coal mine.

“We will be seeking legal costs so that we can keep our fighting fund for another day. We will now be encouraging our supporters to lobby the council so they do not say yes to this revised planning application for the first deep coal mine in the UK in decades.”

Cumbria county council has welcomed the news that the legal challenge has been withdrawn.

A council spokesman said: “Cumbria County Council welcomes the decision on behalf of Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole to withdraw from the judicial review proceedings. We stand by our belief that all planning procedures and considerations were correctly followed throughout by the council. We therefore believe it would be in no one’s interests to hold a lengthy and costly judicial review into this case.

“West Cumbria Mining has revised their planning application so that only metallurgical coal will now be exported from the mine. In the original application it was envisaged that up to 15 per cent of all coal extracted would be middlings or industrial coal. This coal will now be reprocessed to remove sulphur content so that it can be classified as metallurgical coal. WCM have also taken the opportunity to provide a greenhouse gas emissions plan and to respond to the findings of a Green Alliance report. The revised application is expected to be considered at a meeting scheduled to be held on July 8.”

The application is due to be discussed on July 8.