§ Mr. HardyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if coal reserves exist under all or part of(a) Dorset, (b) Wiltshire, (c) Oxfordshire, (d) Avon, (e) Herefordshire, (f) Worcestershire, (g) Buckinghamshire, (h) Berkshire, (i) Cheshire, (j) Lincolnshire, (k) Norfolk, (l) Kent, (m) Cambridgeshire, (n) Cumbria, (o) North Yorkshire and (p) Humberside; and at what depth the shallowest seam lies in respect of each.
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§ Mr. EggarMy Department does not hold the information requested. Information provided by the British Geological Survey suggests that coal either does not occur, or where it does occur, it is not economically recoverable at the present time in Dorset, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Kent, Cambridgeshire and Humberside. There are deep mines in North Yorkshire where coal reserves occur at depths ranging from 300 m to 1,000 m.
Opencast coal mining and small-scale shallow underground mining currently takes place in Cumbria. Shallow coal occurs at or near the surface in localised areas in Cheshire, Worcestershire and Avon, extending slightly into west Wiltshire, but the potential is considered to be very limited in these counties.