Planning Applications FAQs

• Find out which process your Local Planning Authority uses

• Collapse of shallow coal mine workings;
• Collapse of, or risk of entry into, mine entries (shafts and adits).
• The Coal Authority has records of over 171,000 coal mine entries, although there are thought to be many more unrecorded.
• Gas emissions from coal mines including methane and carbon dioxide;
• Spontaneous combustion or ignition of coal which may lead to the production of carbon monoxide;
• Transmission of gases into adjacent properties from underground sources through ground fractures.
• Coal mining subsidence; or
• Water emissions from coal mine workings.
   
• We help to clean up water from coal mines; and
• We give people advice and information about past coal mining. 
  
   

Contact your Local Planning Authority or the Coal Authority to find out whether your application site falls into the Coal Mining Development Referral Area. Further information will be on-line in due course.

For all new development proposals within Coal Mining Development Referral Areas that require planning permission, except householder developments, the Coal Authority will expect a Coal Mining Risk Assessment to be prepared and submitted with the planning application to the Local Planning Authority.

A Coal Mining Risk Assessment will contain site specific information on any past, current and proposed surface and underground coal mining activity together with other safety and ground stability information. The coal mining information can be obtained from The Coal Authority for a modest cost in the form of a Coal Mining Report or alternatively applicants can make their investigation of the coal mining records at British Geological Survey (Nottingham/Edinburgh) or The Coal Authority Heritage Centre, Mansfield. The site specific information for the proposed development must then be considered by a competent person to assess the risks and propose any mitigation / remediation measures to address the risks. See question 13 below for further information on who will be considered a competent person.

The potential coal mining hazards may not necessarily be confined to your proposed development site. Where hazards are identified and mitigation / remediation measures proposed they must consider whether they would address the risks within the site and beyond. For example the stabilisation of shallow coal workings by grouting may affect, block or divert underground pathways for water or gas.

2.E.1. For development in areas potentially liable to subsidence, or that it likely to cause subsidence, a local planning authority may request a ground stability report. This will allow the applicant to demonstrate that subsidence will not unacceptably adversely affect a proposed development or it can be satisfactorily mitigated in the design of the development.

2.E.2 The preparation of a ground stability report is a technical task demanding a wide range of expertise in engineering geology, geomorphology, hydrogeology, mining, geotechnical engineering and foundation design. Such reports should be prepared by a competent person with proven experience in the fields relevant to subsidence of natural and mining/industrial cavities and due to adverse foundation conditions. 

Appropriately qualified people would be expected to be chartered members of a relevant professional institution, such as the Geological Society, the Institute of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or other relevant professional institutions…”