Mining plans spark new flooding alert

It's not difficult to feel sympathy for the plight of the people of Naburn. Just a month ago, their village was cut off by the worst floods to hit the region since records began. Many homes were swamped, and virtually the only way in or out of the village was by inflatable dinghy.

There was no denying the Dunkirk Spirit which prevailed, with a makeshift 'operations room' set up in the front room of one home. But there was no denying the heartbreak, either, as homes and possessions were abandoned one by one to the steadily rising waters.

Now, with the clean-up just beginning and some people unlikely to be able to move back into their homes for a couple of months at least, comes a new, and entirely man-made, threat. RJB Mining has announced it intends to begin mining a seam of coal deep beneath Naburn - which could, in theory, result in the entire village sinking by up to three feet.

Small wonder that villagers are up in arms. "We were under water!" says parish clerk Jenny Balding indignantly, referring to the recent floods. "The subsidence (due to mining) can get to anywhere up to 0.99 of a metre (about three feet). That's the permitted limit." She leaves the rest unsaid: but visions of a submerged village aren't difficult to imagine. "We're going to fight this all the way," she adds. "They need to accept that this is a major problem."

Villagers are indeed preparing to fight all the way. An emergency meeting of the parish council is being called next week to discuss the possibility of a legal challenge - citing the European Convention on Human Rights. Villagers believe if mining does go ahead, and the village is flooded as a consequence, that could be an infringement of their rights to life, to peaceful enjoyment of their possessions, and to respect for private and family life.

But will the village be flooded as a result of mining? Coal firm RJB, which inherited a 24-year-old permission to mine beneath Naburn when it paid the former British Coal £815m for its English coalfield assets a few years ago, insists not.

Spokesman Stuart Oliver says the coal beneath Naburn is part of the seam that makes up the Selby coalfield area. About 700 yards beneath the surface, the seam is about six feet thick. Mining will be in reinforced tunnels, from which the supports will be removed after mining is finished, allowing the tunnels to collapse in on themselves.

It's that which causes subsidence. But mining in the Selby coalfield is very restricted, Mr Oliver insists - and there is permission to mine only one seam, unlike in Stoke on Trent, which has subsided by about 70 feet in the past 100 years, where several seams have been mined. Any subsidence in the Selby coalfield will be nothing like as bad, he says.

How bad? A metre? A foot? Until detailed plans for extraction have been completed the company is unable to say.

In an area prone to flooding even a foot could be serious. That's why, to counter any increased risk of flooding, RJB has pledged that before any mining work begins, improved flood defences agreed by both RJB and the Environment Agency will be built that will compensate for subsidence and will provide villagers with at least as much protection from floods as they enjoy now.

Precisely what those flood defences will involve is not clear yet, although they are likely to lead to higher banks and possibly pumps. RJB has yet to put detailed proposals for extraction of coal from beneath Naburn to the Environment Agency - and until then the agency cannot begin to draw up flood defence plans. The agency insists all defences will be in place before any mining begins. But it also admits those defences will be based on estimates - its own, and those supplied by RJB - of the amount of subsidence caused by mining.

So what about those guarantees that villagers will enjoy defences at least as good as they have now?

"The guys who go around looking at subsidence can give a pretty good idea about how much subsidence there will be," admits an Environment Agency spokesman. "But we can never give a guarantee."

Even if they could, it probably wouldn't be that much of a consolation to the villagers of Naburn. "Building a wall around every property, or down the banks of the river, is not the answer," says Jenny Balding. "It's just sending the problem somewhere else further downriver." Somewhere such as Kelfield, perhaps - where RJB is also preparing to mine under the same 24-year-old permission. People there are equally worried.

In the recent record-breaking floods, admits parish council chairman Graham Taylor, the village's flood defences just about managed to keep the waters at bay. But the floods came within a couple of inches of overtopping defences and villagers fear what might happen in future if the village were to sink by up to three feet - especially if, as deputy prime minister John Prescott keeps telling us, floods are increasingly going to become a fact of life.

"The river is 50 yards from my house - and I'm one of the people furthest away," says Mr Taylor. "We understand that there is coal there. And we know that RJB has the right to mine. But that doesn't mean it has to exercise that right. Do you have to take profit over people?

"The government is saying that it would be risky now to build on flood plains. But surely it would be just as risky to make a flood plain in an area that's not already a flood plain by mining underneath? That amounts to premeditated vandalism."

RJB remains bullish. Villagers complaining about mining amounts to nimbyism, says Mr Oliver.

"Everybody wants energy," he says. "Everybody wants the lights on and the TV on and the heating and all the other things. But when it comes to getting the energy nobody wants coal mining.

"Lots of people have chosen to live on flood plains. RJB will take whatever steps necessary to provide them with the same degree of safety as they now enjoy. In reality they will probably get more: certainly no less."

RJB points to the villages of Stillingfleet and Escrick as good examples of communities where flood defences were installed before mining began - and where those defences have stood the test of time.

Peter Dummer, chairman of Stillingfleet Parish Council, admits that while over the years 'quite a few' houses have needed to be redecorated because of cracking, in the recent floods the village remained bone dry.

But he sympathises with the people of Naburn. "Having seen what's happened in the recent floods, I don't know how they can protect Naburn unless they build huge walls down the river," he says. "If I was there, I would want RJB stopped."