Erection of a Dwelling, Belmont Street, Oldham, OL1

Due to the site being within a ‘Development High Risk Area’ the Coal Authority raised an object to the application until the applicant had submitted a Coal Mining Risk Assessment (CMRA).

The aim of a CMRA is to identify any coal mining legacy risks and set out a proposed mitigation strategy to demonstrate to the LPA that the site can be made safe and stable for the proposed development. In some cases it may be possible to ensure that the development layout avoids recorded high risk features.

The published geology indicated that the site the bedrock (Pennine Lower Coal Measures) were present ta the surface and no drift deposits were recorded to be present.

Data provided by the Coal Authority indicated that the Arley Coal seam was worked and present below the site at a depth of 143mbgl, the Coal Authority also believe there is the possibility of unrecorded shallow coal seams underlying the site.

The lack of drift soils and the possibility of shallow coal seams indicated the possibility of bell pits to be present on the site.

Based on the potential risks of surface instability further works were proposed, which included the excavation fo a trial trench to investigate for disturbed ground associated with bell pits and the sinking of a borehole to 30mbgl to investigate for coal seams, if coal was encountered then a further two boreholes would be sunk.

The report was submitted with the application, the Coal Authority raised their objection to the application and the requirement for the proposed work swere conditioned.