I would like to comment on the draft Nottinghamshire Mineral Plan for the following reasons:

There is no separate consideration for Unconventional Hydrocarbons. The recovery of gas from Shale rock is a dangerous and potentially polluting business, that will need extra restrictions and safety measures. It is far more hazardous than other mineral extraction operations taking place in the county, such as gravel extraction. The fact that Shale gas has to extracted using Hydraulic Fracturing means that there is a potential for subsidence and earthquakes particularly in areas where there are underground tunnels left by coal mining. The large Aquifer under Sherwood Forest is also at risk of pollution, if the chemicals used in the water remain in the ground after the gas is extracted. It has been reported that this can happen with up to 40% of the chemicals in the water used to extract the gas, being left. If these chemicals enter the water table, they can create serious pollution. Some of them are carcinogenic and others effect people hormones.

The Fracking companies operating in Nottinghamshire - Island Gas and Ineos do not have good records. I Gas have used unreliable debt finace and has lost 96% of it's share value in the last four years. INEOS has a really bad environmental and health & safety record - with fires, toxic air and water pollution at a number of sites around the world, including the Grangemouth Refinery in Scotland. Large numbers of plastic pellets have been discharged into the North Sea. [bit.ly/awful-INEOS]

I hope that you will reconsider this part of the pan so that people and the environment in Nottinghamshire remain safe. Nottinghamshire is full of important Historic and Ecological areas which need to be protected from the activities of unscrupulous companies like IGas and INEOS. To do this I believe that you must separate Unconventional Hydrocarbon extraction from other mining and extraction activities.