« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
National Planning Policy Guideline NPPG
4: LAND FOR MINERAL WORKING
action required
88. The continued working of minerals should be within a
framework, provided by national policy and development
plans, which seeks to accommodate the objectives of both
economic development and conservation. To emphasise the
importance of the development plan system, section 18A of
the 1972 Act, as inserted by section 58 of the Planning and
Compensation Act 1991, redefines the status to be accorded
to development plans in making any determination under
planning legislation. This provision adds weight to the
relevance of development plans for reaching decisions on
all planning applications and appeals. Accordingly, it will
be increasingly important that plans incorporate relevant
and robust policies for all types of development likely to
arise within the plan area. Development plans should
therefore be reviewed in order to provide an up to date and
relevant framework for informed and sensitive
decision-making on individual applications, with regard to
the following guidance.
Structure Plans
89. Structure plans should include policies which
express the planning authorities' strategy for mineral
working. This strategy should recognise that national and
local requirements for minerals need to be met and provide
for their working in a positive way. Mineral working cannot
simply be dismissed as an unwelcome environmental intrusion
and nuisance. Due weight must be given to the need for the
resources, contributions to local employment and the wider
economic benefits.
- It should be recognised that mineral
working is an important economic activity in its
own right albeit with significant environmental
constraints.
90. The reasoned justification for the minerals policies
in the plan should indicate how these policies relate to
other structure plan policies. Policies for minerals should
take fully into account nationally and internationally
important environmental and socio-economic factors set out
in this NPPG in addition to any aspects of local
significance that may be included.
91. With regard to the strategic aspects of settlement
policy in the more sensitive rural areas and locations in
close proximity to existing built-up areas, policies should
set out the criteria to be adopted in restricting
development or in reducing the impacts to a satisfactory
level. Policies which rule out all forms of mineral working
will not normally be appropriate. Where environmental
factors suggest that mineral working is likely to cause
insuperable difficulties, the policy should identify the
nationally or internationally important resources or
environmental feature to be safeguarded against
inappropriate development.
92. Structure plan policies for mineral working
should:
- safeguard mineral deposits from development which
would inhibit their subsequent extraction;
- define preferred areas for mineral working, in
relation to other strategic priorities and subject to
detailed evaluation in local plans or individual
applications;
- define areas where, because of environmental and
other considerations, proposals to work minerals are
likely to prove difficult to reconcile with other
policy considerations;
- set the framework for local plans including
priorities for development control.
Local Plans
93. Where planning authorities consider that the
policies and proposals for mineral development need
detailed expression or application to specific sites in the
light of the mineral resources in a particular area, local
plans should be reviewed and mineral policies incorporated
dealing with a comprehensive range of matters. This should
include the relationship to national and structure plan
policies, as well as other policies and proposals within
the local plan. In appropriate circumstances they should
identify sites for safeguarding and future working
(including currently approved sites). Where this is not
feasible, more broadly defined areas of search should be
set out which provide a guide to the industry as to the
broad locations or criteria which indicate the
circumstances where extraction might be permitted.
94. Local plans should also include policies to ensure,
at the stage when planning permission is granted, that the
land from which minerals have been extracted or on to which
mineral wastes have been deposited, is restored to
facilitate a beneficial after-use. The preferred types of
reclamation and after-use will depend on the
characteristics of the mineral deposit, nature of the
excavation and availability of fill material, as well as
the general characteristics and planning policies for the
area.
95. Authorities may also wish to include policies in
their plans on the siting of ancillary operations such as
the processing of excavated materials. These operations can
have a significant local environmental impact, for example
in terms of visual intrusion and noise, but there may be
operational reasons why the ancillary activities should
take place close to the site where the mineral is
worked.
96. Local plans should, where appropriate, include
policies and identify areas which:
- safeguard mineral deposits from development
which would inhibit their subsequent
working;
- consider, where appropriate, rephasing
other development to enable mineral working to take
place;
- indicate sites, or define areas of search,
where planning authorities would favour mineral
working;
- indicate sites or areas where other
considerations are likely to militate against
mineral working;
- guide developers on the amelioration of
significant environmental effects;
- encourage the removal of all minerals in a
single operation from any site where this is
economically feasible;
- provide for the reclamation of sites to
beneficial after-use;
- provide an explicit development control
framework;
- provide for regular monitoring and the
preparation of environmental audits;
- provide for the re-use of materials in
waste tips and construction wastes.
97. Local plans should provide the framework for
development control by specifying the criteria against
which individual applications for planning permission will
be determined. These would include:
- impact of extraction and processing and the
implications for pollution, employment, agriculture,
nature conservation, landscape, cultural heritage and
built up areas;
- location with respect to other workings in the
vicinity;
- restoration, aftercare and after-use requirements
and
- the use of relevant and enforceable conditions and
where appropriate, section 50 agreements.
98. Departmental advice has been that planning
authorities should concentrate their local plan efforts on
the preparation and adoption of comprehensive local plans.
Where this has been achieved, it may be appropriate now to
consider the preparation of minerals subject plans for
areas of significant mineral resources.
Development Control
99. Development control provides a positive instrument
by which the conflicting claims on land for mineral working
and other surface uses can be examined and reconciled to
the fullest possible extent. Environmental assessment
enables mineral extraction proposals, likely to have a
significant effect on the environment, to be examined in
detail. In seeking to reconcile mineral working with other
development, as well as environmental and conservation
interests, the following factors are particularly relevant
when assessing individual applications for planning
permission. They should be addressed, where appropriate, in
the environmental assessment and conditions attached to
planning permissions:
- methods of working,
- hours of working,
- fit in the landscape,
- transportation,
- potential pollution,
- restoration, aftercare and after-use.
Planning authorities will need to make a balanced
judgement on each application taking into account
development plan policies, the applicant's case for the
proposed development, the environmental implications of
carrying it out and other material considerations.
100. Where there are sound planning objections to a
particular proposal, the applicant will need to show how
these can be overcome or how any detrimental environmental
effects can be mitigated, where appropriate advancing any
material arguments which might outweigh objections to the
proposed development eg environmental benefits such as the
clearance of dereliction or the improvement to the
stability of the site. The greater these benefits are the
stronger the environmental objections would need to be to
deny permission. For its part the minerals industry will
need to demonstrate that it has considered these potential
effects when preparing planning applications.
101. When a planning authority decides that a formal
environmental assessment is not warranted, because the
project will not give rise to significant environmental
effects, it is still open to them to use their powers under
article 13 of the General Development Procedure Order to
request environmental information. In such circumstances,
the list of topics included in Schedule 3 to the EA
Regulations may provide a useful guide (see Annex A).
102. Where a planning authority propose to grant
planning permission for a mineral working application that
raises specific issues of national importance (eg proposals
which would affect SSSIs), they may be required to notify
the Secretary of State who may call-in the application for
his own determination. The circumstances requiring such
notification are summarised in Annex B to this NPPG.
Review of Mining Sites
103. Section 251A of the 1972 Act places on planning
authorities a general duty to review the mining sites
within their area
18. Where the planning authority consider that revised
operating or restoration conditions are required, they may
modify or revoke planning permissions. The planning
authority may also make orders requiring the discontinuance
of a use of land, prohibiting the resumption of mineral
working when it has ceased, and suspending mineral working.
These powers have not been used for a variety of reasons.
The Government is currently reviewing the operation of this
aspect of the Act.
Environmental Monitoring
104. It is a well established technique within the
planning system to monitor the impacts of development on
the environment, particularly where the latter is sensitive
to change. Environmental management is also an integral
part of environmental codes being adopted by many sectors
of industry in recognition of the public concern for better
safeguards for the environment as a whole
19.
When granting or renewing planning permissions, planning
authorities should provide for:
- regular monitoring and the preparation of
environmental audits by the operator, the content
and frequency of which should be specified by the
planning authority.
The audit results should be discussed with the planning
authority and where appropriate agreement reached on any
remedial measures required to be taken by the mineral
operator in order to safeguard the environment of the site
and the surrounding area.
« Previous | Contents | Next »