Do you mean the M62 ?



I was involved in a very small way in establishing the first buildings on what became Whitemoor Pit on the Selby coalfield back in 1978-ish (or so) and the size of that development with five or six individual pitheads in the area meant that it attracted miners from all over the country, and large new build housing estates followed - no problems in building on what were technically quite shallow mines, the problem with coal mining has never really been subsidence which when it happens is usually very localised, its the waste produced over decades that left a problem but even that has been dealt with - take a look at what was the mountain of slag left by the Prince of Wales pit for instance after it was re-mined for coal that had been considered too "dirty" to collect previously.



The environmental concerns over fracking are totally different to that of underground coal mining and even the companies doing the fracking don't really know what will happen until it happens - read the article that I linked to previously and the quotes from the company who caused the problems.

The water would probably have soaked into the fractured shale deep below ground - expect to see this in a government press office release in the near future, repeated immediately by a compliant media.

And there is a very good question.

So, fracking will help flood control. Brilliant!



The only flaw in such a political comment would be that for many years ground water levels have been dangerously low and would fracking therefore make it worse!!

We'll basically lose any ground water deep inside the earth where it will turn to steam and come back through fissures as geysers - the whoel of the UK will then be declared a National Park along the lines of Yellowstone and we'll all have free hot water for life - but we'll have to catch rainwater to drink.



I can't really see a downside actually.

Geothermal power!