Guidance

Pre-application planning and technical advice for proposals within the Development High Risk Area on the coalfield

Updated 23 September 2024

The Coal Authority’s pre-application advice service helps ensure that any risks from coal mining legacy are considered throughout the planning, design and implementation of a project.

Seeking advice as early as possible can help to significantly reduce the risk of unnecessary delays in both planning applications and the overall development.

This service is relevant to consultants, contractors and developers whether you are considering, or have already submitted, a planning application within an area defined by the Coal Authority as a Development High Risk Area.

The advice helps ensure your proposals consider all associated coal mining risks and that your supporting information meets the required standards. However it remains a developer’s responsibility under the various national planning policies to ensure that the development they carry out is both ‘safe and stable’.

1. How our service will help you

We can provide a broad range of services in relation to pre-application enquiries, including, but not limited to:

• document review - including the adequacy of draft Coal Mining Risk Assessments and site investigation findings
• advising on site layout - to effectively manage the risks posed by coal mining features
• appraising proposed remedial measures and design solutions
• the acceptability of proposals - in respect of the implications of coal mining features for ground stability and public safety, from the context of us being consulted on a planning application

We usually issue written advice through a formal letter by email, but if you want to talk through your proposals and gain our response by discussion, a meeting can be arranged.

Although we use the term pre-application advice, our advice remains relevant to projects already within the planning system and until all such matters are satisfactorily discharged. However, we do not comment on any construction work that is physically ongoing during the enquiry and advice period, this includes ongoing investigation, remediation or construction.

We do not provide a design service and will not take on the role of designer as defined under the Construction Design Management regulations. Furthermore, our advice is always a response to your, or your designer’s, proposals.

2. How we operate the service

1. Enquiry – all enquiries should be submitted using our enquiry form through the dedicated service email address planningadvice@coal.gov.uk attaching any requested plans or documents. This will provide us with a minimum level of information.

2. Screen – we determine whether we can provide advice, its scope, the resources and time necessary, leading to a fee proposal. If we are not able to provide advice, we will explain why.

3. Validate – for an enquiry to be validated, the customer must agree the timescale of delivery, accept the terms of the service, pay the relevant fee, provide us with any outstanding information and give written instruction to proceed. We will then, provided payment has cleared, formally register the enquiry and work will start.

4. Advise – our advice is provided in confidence as agreed, in writing, at a meeting or a combination both.

5. Close - we then close the enquiry when complete.

3. What we need to know

For enquiries to be accepted, they must be submitted with the following:

• contact details
• site address, including postcode where available
• a digital Ordnance Survey-based location plan, to an appropriate scale, showing the site boundary within its local context
• a plan showing the proposed development layout, again within the context of the surrounding land
• the planning application reference number, where relevant, and the name of the local planning authority
• a description of your proposals
• a full and detailed summary of your enquiry for advice

Depending on the nature of a request or the stage of a project, further information could be required, such as:

• a copy of the relevant decision notice and any specific condition, if your enquiry relates to an existing planning permission or condition
• links to any risk assessments, ground investigations, interpretative reports, design reports or remedial strategies that require our review.

View the Coal Authority Technical Guidance Note TGN02/2021 for Designer’s submissions for those seeking engineering appraisal

We will only request the information that is necessary for us to provide the level of advice agreed with our customer.

4. Timescales

Following validation, we aim to register all instructions within 2 working days.

We aim to issue written advice within 21 days of registration, unless you want:

• an expedited written response, which is issued within 14 days of registration
• a Coal Mining Risk Assessment, in which case a standard response will be made within 14 days of registration
• a meeting, which we aim to arrange within 14 days of registration, unless you request a longer time period
• an expedited meeting, which we aim to arrange within 7 days of registration

Expedited meetings are generally only offered for initial meetings. These will be virtual, not in-person, and in all cases, can only be arranged if we have available resources.

In some cases proposals benefit from a site visit, prior to a meeting or a follow-on meeting, and timescales for these may vary.

We will discuss timescales with you before a fee quotation is issued.

5. Fees and payment

The fee for an initial meeting to brief us on a new project is set at £592.76 excluding VAT.

This fee includes a one hour meeting following the submission and review of a completed enquiry form.

For this initial meeting we do not carry out a review of any information submitted or undertake detailed interrogation of our data. It is the customer’s responsibility to describe the site, their understanding of the risks, the development objectives and associated proposals.

The pre-application advice service is charged on a cost-recovery basis and each fee will be bespoke to the project.

We use Coal Authority charge-out rates and include a small administrative fee.

The exact fee will be influenced by a number of factors, including:

• Coal Authority staff costs
• the complexity of coal mining features present on the site
• the scale, stage and type of development proposed
• the nature of your request

All fee proposals will normally be issued within 7 working days of receipt of all relevant information necessary to calculate the fee.

Fee proposals will remain valid for 3 months from the date of issue. If instruction to proceed is not received within that time-period, a new fee proposal will be required.

Any expenses in addition to the costs of staff time, for example essential travel costs, will be charged and set out clearly in the fee proposal.

Where we are able to agree an expedited response, the fee will be twice the standard timeframe charge.

If requests are made for consideration of additional information following a fee proposal being issued but prior to payment, then we will review the original fee proposal and reissue an amended version to cover any additional costs.

If requests are made for consideration of additional information after a payment has been received, work will stop until a quote for the additional fee is paid. Our timescales to meet or issue a response will be adjusted to reflect the changes.

Unless a customer account specific to the pre-application advice has been agreed and arranged, all payments will be quoted, invoiced and paid for prior to any work commencing.

All quotes are provided on a free, no obligation basis.

The customer is required to complete and return a pro-forma invoice which will be issued with our fee-proposal. The provision of pre-application advice will only proceed once payment has been received.

5.1 Payment on account

In exceptional cases, where sites are particularly large, have complex coal mining legacy issues or are expected to require repeated consultations, it might not be possible or appropriate to confirm the exact fees at the outset.

If this is the case, subject to agreement, an initial fee plus VAT will be charged.

Some basic financial checks will be necessary prior to an account being set up. The account required is specific to the Coal Authority’s pre-application advice service and existing accounts for the Coal Authority’s other services cannot be used.

If it becomes apparent that costs could exceed the initial agreed sum, then we will contact you in a timely manner, either to confirm an exact further fee proposal for the outstanding work or, where uncertainty remains, request a further agreed payment limit.

If account customers submit a purchase order with their confirmation of instruction, this will be construed as payment for the requested service. Please note however, that the terms of service set out below will continue to apply, notwithstanding any that may be set out in the customer’s purchase order.

6. Limitations

Our advice is strictly limited to coal mining legacy features affecting the proposed development area, these are Development High Risk Areas. We cannot comment on any other planning and development matters and customers should seek advice from the local planning authority or case officer.

We aim to provide consistent advice but our professional views could change as new information becomes available or if the proposed development scheme is amended.

Similarly, if there are changes to national planning policy or Coal Authority policies, this could have a bearing on our assessment. It is therefore important that you seek our advice on a timely basis.

7. Terms of service

The Coal Authority provides the pre-application advice service on the basis of the information presented. The customer takes full responsibility for the accuracy of this information.

In using the service, you agree that the Coal Authority will have no liability in relation to the advice it gives, which is given in good faith.

All information and communications received as part of the service will be considered confidential between the Coal Authority and the customer. We will only discuss matters with third parties if the customer instructs us to do so.

Responses will usually be prepared by the Coal Authority’s planning team, however we may need to discuss matters with other internal, specialist teams.

The Coal Authority will use any information submitted as part of pre-application advice to update its regulatory and public records or report internally on the services performance.

The service is managed and delivered independently from any of the Coal Authority’s commercial services to avoid any conflict of interest.

Use of the pre-application advice service is at the customer’s discretion.

The customer is free to use the information that we provide to support any planning submission to a local authority or for any other purpose.

Any advice given constitutes the professional opinion of the Coal Authority but is given without prejudice to the determination of any planning application made to the local planning authority.

No advice given can prejudge or guarantee how the local planning authority will decide any particular case. However, it is likely that if the Coal Authority was to be formally consulted in its statutory role in similar terms, our formal response to the local planning authority will be similar to the pre-application advice that was provided.

It is the customer’s responsibility to provide the most current and relevant information at the time of the enquiry

No advice given by the Coal Authority will be valid and effective unless it is confirmed in writing.

The Coal Authority’s advice is current on the date given, be aware therefore that as time passes, material circumstances and the validity of that advice may change as a consequence.

The Coal Authority reserves the right to review our fees for any reason at our discretion.

8. Disclaimer

The following disclaimer will be included in our advice:

“Whilst we have made every attempt to ensure that the information contained in this response is based on our records, the Coal Authority is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information.

“All information is provided ‘as is’, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

“In no event will the Coal Authority be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken in reliance on the information in this site or for any consequential, special or similar damages, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.”

9. Freedom of Information

We will treat a request for pre-application advice confidentially, but if the Coal Authority receives a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) or Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) to disclose information relating to this pre-application enquiry we are obliged to do so.

We can only withhold information under FOI or EIR if the information falls under one of the exemptions of FOI or exceptions for EIR set out in legislation. You will therefore need to confirm that the pre-application advice request is commercially sensitive if you which to mitigate this risk.

The Coal Authority maintains compliance to the Data Protection Act 2018 and will not release personal information to third parties.

Coal Authority pre-application advice service

Coal Authority
200 Lichfield Lane
Mansfield
Nottinghamshire
NG18 4RG

Email planningadvice@coal.gov.uk

Telephone 01623 637119