Minister urged to drop new coal-mining plans in Northumberland

Druridge Bay project makes mockery of UK's goal to phase out coal by 2025, say critics

A wild stretch of Northumberland beach has become the ultimate testing ground of the government's much-vaunted commitment to phase out coal by 2025, according to campaigners.

On Friday, James Brokenshire, the minister for communities and local government, will start examining whether to allow a local coal mining company, Banks Group, to extract three million tonnes of coal from 250 hectares of land behind the sand dunes of Druridge Bay, in a project that will extend beyond the government's own deadline for the end of coal.