I am appalled and alarmed that the new draft Minerals Plan fails to contain a separate policy on Unconventional Hydrocarbons, and that Notts County Council planners consider that there is no justifiable reason in planning policy terms to separate shale gas from other hydrocarbon development. How can this be, when it is a completely different process from the extraction of 'conventional hydrocarbons', and comes with far greater risks to the environment and to people?

I am aware that many comments and "justifiable reasons" were submitted to the County Council earlier this year by concerned groups and individuals who had done plenty of research into the industry, and would like to know why these comments from the public appear to have been ignored?

The draft Minerals Plan does not appear to protect our beautiful countryside - Sherwood Forest, for example - from becoming industrialised and turned into a gas field, given that the unconventional hydrocarbon industry requires the construction of many well pads two to three miles apart. Why?

Large parts of Nottinghamshire have been subject to coal mining and as such are unstable; large parts of the county are also underlain with sandstone aquifers providing drinking water. The risk of earthquakes in these areas from seismic testing, exploratory drilling and subsequent fracking is very real, and the potential risk to drinking water is frightening. I would particularly draw your attention to the work of Professor Peter Styles - former adviser to David Cameron, former President of the Geological Society of London, a project leader with the ReFine fracking research project and previous Head of Geology at Keele University - who says the fracking process could lead to seismic activity by stimulating faults in geology that has already been stressed by mining. The Professor knows his subject and attention must be paid to what he has to say. His report can be studied here:
https://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/facnatsci/schgge/news/2018/Fracking%20and%20Mining-%20Styles%202018.pdf

Given, too, that there may well be areas of very old mining activity for which no records even exist, I find the lack of a specific policy on shale gas to be incomprehensible and would urge you most strongly to incorporate such a policy into the new Minerals Plan.

I look forward to your response and hope to see a revised draft of the Plan following the consultation.