Description:

Proposed residential development requiring planning under ‘exceptional circumstances’ as the site was designated Green Belt despite being far from green!

Scope of work undertaken:

• Desk Study – identifying landfill, colliery spoil heap (on fire), coal shafts, former disused railway tunnel and former tile works
• Ground Investigation including:
• Coal mining investigation including multiple shafts
• Surface water sampling off site due to the EA anticipating base flow of nearby stream being from the sandstone beneath the subject site
• Extensive gas monitoring due to adjacent recent landfill
• Thermal Imaging Survey of Colliery Spoil heap (too dangerous to undertake any other type of survey hence helicopter survey) recording temperatures of approx. 100c – 150c along the ridge of the mound at surface. These temperatures where found peaking at 160c. This was the ‘exceptional circumstance’ for planning.
  

After many meetings with Planners, open evenings with locals, contaminated land officer, health protection agency and fire services where Betts Geo attended as expert, eventually planning has been approved subject to extinguishing the collier soil heap… the next phase of work! Without the level of investigation to argue out the exceptional circumstances the site would have remained undevelopable.