If you’re buying a property or land for development, particularly for a proposed planning application, you need to know whether it’s affected by coal mining activity. In July 2011, The Coal Authority formalised its requirements in relation to planning applications in England, Scotland and Wales for all except householder developments. Earth Environmental & Geotechnical has completed many Coal Mining Risk Reports for residential, commercial and industrial properties, and has extensive experience in relating these risk assessments to planning applications. Coal mining was a widespread, major industry that drove the industrial revolution and two World Wars - consumption peaked in 1913 at 287 million tonnes, and virtually disappeared following the industry’s collapse after 1970. There are several ways of extracting coal. Open pit methods are used where coal strata strike the surface or are relatively shallow. Underground, or deep mining began to develop e...