The firm aiming to bring coal mining back to Whitehaven has pledged to give “at least 80 per cent” of the jobs to local people.

Around 500 jobs would created if West Cumbria Mining (WCM) gets the go-ahead to extract coking coal off the coast of St Bees, with a processing plant on the former Marchon site at Kells.

And speaking at a public meeting in Mirehouse, WCM’s project manager Kevin Murphy said that 80 per cent of the jobs during construction and operation will go to local people, adding: “That’s the minimum and we’d like that figure to be higher.”

Mr Murphy revealed that talks were under way with Lakes College, Lillyhall, that would see a coalmining module added to the end of a number of existing courses it offers.

He said: “At the end of an electrician course for example, there would be a module containing a coalmining element. This training process will kick off after the planning permission, so people are ready by the time we get up and running.”

Plans for the project are expected to be lodged with Cumbria County Council by Christmas, the meeting heard, and it is hoped the operation would begin by 2019.

The coking coal would be extracted from under the sea using a remotely-operated device, and transported using an underground conveyor belt to a new train station at Mirehouse that is being proposed as part of the associated developments for NuGen’s Moorside nuclear plant.

Workers would be employed in three shifts and the processing plant, using around a third of the former Marchon site, would be covered by a dome.

Mr Murphy said that WCM has funding in place up until the end of the planning application phase. It will then go out to the private market, with funding anticipated from the UK and Australia.

He added: “The lifespan of our current plans lasts 50 years, although there’s much more coal available than that.”

WCM has an office at the Haig Mining Museum and is holding public drop-in sessions on June 1, 15 and 29.