HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY AND COMMUNITY SAFETY
CABINET PANEL
16 OCTOBER 2012
MINERALS LOCAL PLAN UPDATE
Agenda Item No
Report of the Chief Executive and Director of Environment
Author: Trish Carter-Lyons Tel: 01992 556254
Executive Member: Richard Thake
1. Purpose of report
1.1 To advise the Panel of the changes in the Planning Framework which
5 need to be incorporated into the review of the Minerals Local Plan. The
Panel is asked to consider the way forward for production of the revised Minerals Local Plan.
2. Summary
2.1 The county council as Minerals Planning Authority has a statutory responsibility to produce a Minerals Local Plan for the county. The
Minerals Local Plan sets out the apportionment of minerals to be planned for, identifies sites which have viable reserves for extraction and contains policies against which mineral planning applications can be assessed. In addition, there is a new requirement to produce a
Local Aggregates Assessment to inform the Minerals Local Plan and plan for a steady and adequate supply of aggregates.
Hertfordshire’s
Local Aggregates Assessment will be provided to the Panel at a subsequent meeting.
2.2 This report sets out the options available for reviewing the Minerals
Local Plan in light of new requirements and the current situation in terms of providing a landbank of permitted reserves.
3. Recommendation
3.1 That the Panel recommends to the Chief Executive and Director of
Environment that a partial review and the production of one, all encompassing, plan is an appropriate way forward to review the
Minerals Local Plan.
1

4. Need for review
4.1 The existing Minerals Local Plan Review 2002-2016 being used by development management for the determination of mineral planning applications was adopted in March 2007. A review of this document is now scheduled to take place so that it is in conformity with new requirements within the National Planning Policy Framework. In addition a review is required to ensure that the document is kept up-todate in light of the revised mineral apportionment for the county and reserves that have been permitted to be extracted by way of planning permissions since the production of the existing document.
4.2 Since the Minerals Local Plan was adopted there have been a number of changes to the planning system. These include:- a) enactment of the Localism Act 2011. b) introduction of the new National Planning Policy Framework. c) commencement of Town and Country Planning (Local Planning)
(England) Regulations 2012.
4.3 The procedural requirements and content of the revised Hertfordshire
Minerals Local Plan will need to take on board all of these changes.
Localism Act 2011
4.4 The Localism Act received Royal Assent on 15 November 2011 with different provisions of the Act coming into force at different times between then and 6 April 2012. The Act sets out a series of measures with the potential to achieve a substantial and lasting shift in power away from central government and towards local people. They include: new freedoms and flexibilities for local government; new rights and powers for communities and individuals; reform to make the planning system more democratic and more effective, and reform to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally.
4.5 The parts of the Act relevant to the preparation of planning policy documents are as follows:

Abolition of regional strategies.

Duty to co-operate in the planning of sustainable development.

Local development schemes.

Adoption and withdrawal of development plan documents.

Local development: monitoring reports.
4.6 Whilst it has been made clear that it is the government’s intention to revoke RSSs they still remain in force. There is currently no timetable for the revocation of the East of England Plan. Until such time as it is revoked the Minerals Local Plan will need to be in general conformity with it.
2

4.7 The Duty to Co-operate with adjoining and other authorities may have an impact on aggregate provision. This is not a brand new procedure for the Minerals and Waste Planning Authority to undertake, although it will require discussions with other authorities to be formalised and possibly more authorities to be contacted within the country in the consideration of all impacts of mineral imports and exports.
4.8 Amendments have been made to the Planning and Compulsory
Purchase Act 2004 relating to the timetable of plan preparation in the minerals and waste development scheme. The local authority can request that the Planning Inspector makes recommendations to enable a document to be adopted. The local planning authority can opt to withdraw the document from examination at any time. The duty to make an annual report for monitoring purposes has been removed and instead it is for the local authority to make the information accessible as soon as it is available.
National Planning Policy Framework
4.9 The National Planning Policy Framework revokes and replaces
Minerals Planning Statements and Guidance Notes, in particular MPS1 which is pertinent to the production of Minerals Planning Documents. It also requires Mineral planning Authorities to produce a Local
Aggregates Assessment to inform the Minerals Local Plan. This will help plan for a steady and adequate supply of aggregates which wil be reported to Panel on a separate occasion.
4.10 Changes within the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which determine what is required to be included in the Minerals Local
Plan are stipulated within paragraphs 145 -147 of the document. Those of relevance to the extraction of sand and gravel, chalk and clay within
Hertfordshire are summarised as follows:
4.11 Minerals Planning Authorities should plan for a steady and adequate supply of aggregates by:-
● preparing an annual Local Aggregate Assessment - based on a rolling average of 10 years sales data and other relevant local information, and an assessment of all supply options (including marine dredged, secondary and recycled sources);
● participating in the operation of an Aggregate Working Party and taking their advice into account when preparing the Local Aggregate
Assessment;
● making provision for the land-won and other elements of the Local
Aggregate Assessment in the Minerals Local Plan taking account of the advice of the Aggregate Working Parties and the National
Aggregate Coordinating Group as appropriate. This should include
3

specific sites, preferred areas and/or areas of search and locational criteria as appropriate;
● taking account of published National and Sub National Guidelines on future provision when planning for the future demand for and supply of aggregates;
● using landbanks of aggregate minerals reserves as securing aggregate minerals supply, and to indicate the additional provision that needs to be made for new aggregate extraction and alternative supplies in mineral plans;
● making provision for the maintenance of landbanks of at least 7 years for sand and gravel , whilst ensuring that the capacity of operations to supply a wide range of materials is not compromised.
Longer periods may be appropriate to take account of the need to supply a range of types of aggregates, locations of permitted reserves relative to markets, and productive capacity of permitted sites;
● ensuring that large landbanks bound up in very few sites do not stifle competition ; and
● calculating and maintaining separate landbanks for any aggregate materials of a specific type or quality which have a distinct and separate market .
4.12 Minerals planning authorities should plan for a steady and adequate supply of industrial minerals by:
● co-operating with neighbouring and more distant authorities to co-ordinate the planning of industrial minerals to ensure adequate provision is made to support their likely use in industrial and manufacturing processes;
● encouraging safeguarding or stockpiling so that important minerals remain available for use;
● providing a stock of permitted reserves to support the level of actual and proposed investment required for new or existing plant and the maintenance and improvement of existing plant and equipment, as follows:
– – at least 15 years for cement primary (chalk and limestone) and secondary (clay and shale) materials to maintain an existing plant; and
– – at least 25 years for brick clay, and for cement primary and secondary materials to support a new kiln.
● taking account of the need for provision of brick clay from a number of different sources to enable appropriate blends to be made.
4

Town and Country Planning Regulations
4.13 The Town and Country Planning Regulations 2012 was published on 6
April 2012. The Regulations formalise the changes that have been introduced to the planning system. These are now the Regulations that the Minerals Local Plan needs to comply with.
5.
Issues to address
5.1 Since the existing Minerals Local Plan was adopted, a new style of preparing minerals and waste planning policy documents was developed known as the ‘Development Framework’ which involved the production of a series of documents. The NPPF gives more flexibility in document production and under the banner of ‘Local Plans’ allows the
Planning Authority to determine the style of documents produced. The
Minerals review will be prepared as a single document in the form of a
Local Plan. The spatial strategy, development management policies and site specific allocations for minerals planning in the county will all be contained within the same document as currently. This allows for all elements of the Plan to be produced at the same time, instead of staggering plan production to establish one element before another.
5.2 The primary data for identifying minerals, obtained from the British
Geological Survey (BGS), has not changed and therefore it is considered to still be the most reliable data to utilise again in this review of the document. Minerals can only be worked where they are found and there has been extensive work carried out for the previous review in identifying methodology for sieving viable reserves and selecting sites as preferred areas to provide minerals over the plan period. The preferred approach to site selection is to employ the same methodology for selecting sites for additional capacity.
5.3 An early round of consultation was carried out with stakeholders in
2009 regarding whether or not the previous site selection methodology would be appropriate to use again. The responses (in the main) indicated that this would be appropriate.
5.4 In terms of identifying sufficient capacity, the Local Aggregate
Assessment and the annual monitoring of mineral reserves will together enable a better understanding of the need to identify mineral reserves. This is crucial to enable the maintenance of a 7 year landbank for sand and gravel which is the continuing requirement within the planning framework.
5.5 Hertfordshire’s current landbank for sand and gravel stands at 12 years. This is calculated as follows:-
5

Permitted reserves (tonnes) / Apportionment (tonnes) = Landbank (years)
16,700,000 / 1,390,000 = 12.01
The permitted reserves are found at the following sites:
Site Name Aggregate Type
Hatfield Sand and Gravel
Westmill
Rickneys
Dobbs Weir
Panshanger
Sand and Gravel
Sand and Gravel
Sand and Gravel
Sand and Gravel
Tyttenhanger Sand and Gravel
Water Hall Sand and Gravel
The county therefore has a healthy landbank for sand and gravel which is above the minimum of 7 years supply. The landbank for clay is not as healthy.
5.6 It has been identified that a stock of permitted reserves of brick clay will need to be planned for in Hertfordshire to cover at least 25 years of supply. This is to support the level of actual and proposed investment required for new or existing plant and the maintenance and improvement of existing plant and equipment. In addition, account needs to be taken of the need for the provision of brick clay from a number of different sources to enable appropriate blends to be made.
This has not been planned for to such an extent previously and therefore it is proposed that further discussions are held with the brickworks in the county to establish a way forward.
5.7 Whilst the planning permission at the single specialist brickworks in the county runs until 31 December 2025 for the extraction of brick clay at
25,000 tonnes per year, the reserves that have been found have not been as extensive as originally expected. Recent discussions with the brickworks has led to an understanding that there is a potential additional 15 years of workable clay reserves in an adjoining field at current rates of extraction. There is no apportionment for clay provision to take into account. Over the plan period, this means that depending on the current remaining clay reserves, there is up to 10 years of supply to be found to enable the 25 year stock of permitted reserves to be accomplished as stipulated within the NPPF.
6

5.8 A compliance check has been carried out between the existing
Minerals Local Plan and the requirements of the NPPF. It is acknowledged by government that Plans may need to be revised in light of the NPPF and as such there is a phased implementation period
(Annex 1 of the NPPF). For Hertfordshire, it is not considered that it is necessary to complete a ‘quick review’ to fix the omission of 25 years provision of clay as the existing policies can be relied upon by decision makers to determine any planning applications that may come forward until the Minerals Local Plan is reviewed. The NPPF is a material planning consideration and therefore would also need to be taken into account. Therefore reference to the NPPF may be necessary should any issues relating to clay come forward before the review of the
Minerals Local Plan.
5.9 The annual Local Aggregate Assessment (LAA) to be produced by
Mineral Planning Authorities to inform the Minerals Local Plan and plan for a steady and adequate supply of aggregates will include data relating to mineral capacity, imports and exports. It will identify any shortfall in capacity.
5.10 The county council has played an active role in the Aggregates
Working Party for many years and this will continue through provision in the NPPF. Hertfordshire takes advice from the Working Party when preparing its LAA, setting future mineral apportionments and sharing advice on the plan making process in relation to the Minerals Local
Plan. The previous work undertaken by the Regions still remains relevant and any future opportunities for joint working would be identified through this process.
6. Options and Recommendation
6.1 The NPPF states at paragraph 157 that Local Plans should be ‘drawn up over an appropriate time scale, preferably a 15-year time horizon, take account of longer term requirements, and be kept up to date.’ As such the need for a time period for the review of the Minerals Local
Plan arises. The current Plan was adopted in 2007 with a time period for implementation of 2002-2016 (a period of 14 years). Given the end date of the existing Plan and the time for working up the review document from now, it is considered that a reasonable time frame would be 2012-2027 based on the adoption in 2015.
6.2 Based on the 12 year landbank for sand and gravel there would be a need to find 3 years worth of reserves to cover the Plan period.
6.3 Pre-application discussions have indicated the potential for the preferred area 1 in the existing Minerals Local Plan (Land at the former
British Aerospace, Hatfield) to come forward for extraction. This site is estimated to yield 6-8 million tonnes of sand and gravel. This would add between 4 and 6 years to the existing landbank of permitted
7

reserves and therefore would provide a landbank of 16-18 years.
However, as a planning permission has not been submitted as yet and given that the NPPF states that Mineral Planning Authorities should ensure that large landbanks bound up in very few sites do not stifle competition, the county council considers that alternatives to this provision should be planned for.
6.4 The council has different options that can be employed to review the
Minerals Local Plan which are set out below. Members’ views are sought on the appropriate option for undertaking the review of requirements for planning for mineral provision until 2026 in light of recent changes within the planning system.

Full review – this would involve starting afresh by revisiting the initial stages of the background work to analyse the BGS data and reassess the viability of extracting reserves before formulating methodology to sieve areas and select sites for extraction;

Partial review
– this would reuse the site selection methodology from the previous review. There would be an assessment of what mineral requirements can be met using previously identified mineral sites. The viable sites from the previous list that are not currently preferred areas would be reassessed for inclusion in the new Plan to meet capacity needs. Further work would be needed to identify viable reserves of clay to meet the requirements for a 25 year supply in accordance with the NPPF;

Small change – this would simply rely on the existing Minerals Local
Plan as it stands providing above the 7 year landbank for sand and gravel and relying on the existing Preferred Areas for extraction yet to come forward and planning permissions since the previous review.
This would need updating in 12 years time (2024) to look at sand and gravel. The only change would be the identification of viable reserves of clay to meet the requirements for a 25 year supply in accordance with the NPPF;
6.5 Given the contentious nature of identifying mineral extraction sites and the reduced need to identify a large landbank, a partial review would seem the most appropriate way forward. This would require the utilisation of the site selection process that was carried out for the previous review of the document. At that time consultants based their work on (BGS) data to identify resource blocks. The county council then evaluated these resource blocks to identify whether they should be identified in the Plan as future Preferred Areas for mineral extraction. The sites that have come forward and now have permission for extraction would be taken into account in working out what is needed to meet the apportionment. Sites and areas that were considered viable through the previous study would be revisited and evaluated for their possible inclusion.
8

6.6 Given the change in national policy and the change within the structure of the planning policy framework now written into the NPPF, it is considered appropriate to produce a single Minerals Planning
Document
, entitled the’ Minerals Local Plan’ that will encompass the spatial strategy, development management policies & site specific allocations for minerals planning in the county. The production of this document would be in line with the Localism Act, the National Planning
Policy Framework and the Town and Country Planning (Local
Planning) (England) Regulations 2012. Members are asked to consider a partial review and the production of one, all encompassing, plan as a way forward.
7. Stages of Consultation
7.1 Regardless of whether a full or partial review of the Minerals Local Plan is considered appropriate the same statutory stages of consultation would be carried out.
7.2 The Statement of Community Involvement has been a requirement on the council since its introduction under The Planning and Compulsory
Purchase Act 2004 and has subsequently been amended by the
Localism Act 2011 and Town and Country Planning (Local Planning)
(England) Regulations 2012.
The introduction of the ‘Duty to
Cooper ate’ is not a new principle, rather a formalisation of existing process as plan makers and decision takers have always had responsibilities to engage with interested parties and those who may be affected by proposals, however it does introduce more formal requirements to demonstrate that engagement has been active, constructive and on an ongoing basis. In addition the National Planning
Policy Framework states that planning documents should ‘be based on co-operation with neighbouring authorities, public and voluntary and private sector organisations’.
7.3 The purpose of the Statement is to set out ways in which everyone can be involved from the earliest stages of the planning process. The
Statement of Community Involvement will itself be the subject of public consultation to ensure that people have a say in how the county council consult in the future.
7.4 The council will consult on the Minerals Local Plan in accordance with the new requirements under the Town and country Planning
Regulations 2012 whereby there will be one round of formal consultation at the initial stages of plan preparation and another prior to the publication of the ‘Submission Version’ to the Secretary of State.
The exact titles of these consultation stages have yet to be finalised.
7.5 A sustainability appraisal is required to be conducted at an early stage to appraise the options available to the Minerals Planning Authority and later on to appraise the preferred option.
9

7.6 In addition the council has the opportunity to carry out public engagement outside of the formal stages should this be considered necessary. Whilst further rounds of consultation have not been identified at present, Members are advised that any additional need for consultation would be brought back to this Panel for approval as necessary.
8. Next steps
8.1 The Panel is asked to consider and agree the preferred approach of a partial review of the Minerals Local Plan as a single all encompassing document.
9. Financial Implications
9.1 The cost of producing the Minerals Local Plan can be met from existing budgets. The approximate costs of document production for the next two years are set out in the Minerals Waste Development
Scheme. A detailed budget breakdown will be attached to the
Minerals and Waste Development Scheme when it is taken to Panel on 11 November 2012.
Background documents used in writing this report;
The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/5/pdfs/ukpga_20040005_en.pdf
The Localism Act 2011 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/pdfs/ukpga_20110020_en.pdf
Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/767/pdfs/uksi_20120767_en.pdf
The National Planning Policy Framework (2012), DCLG http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/2116950.
pdf
10