The new Minerals Local Plan will on its own provide sufficient guidance against which planning decisions can be made. The County Council can, however, prepare additional development plan documents, in order to provide more detailed guidance and certainty that will help support the strategy set out in the Minerals Local Plan.
The current intention is to prepare up to two further mineral development plans covering the following matters:
A Site Specific Document will allocate sites for future mineral development to help implement guidance in the Minerals Local Plan. The focus is expected to be on sand and gravel and Sherwood Sandstone provision as for these minerals the Minerals Local Plan is expected to set out a broad strategy rather than allocate sites.
A Minerals Safeguarding Document will focus on identifying the precise boundaries of resources to be safeguarded. It may also set more detailed guidance on safeguarding the county’s diverse mineral resources.
The decision to prepare either or both of these documents will be made once the full scope and content of the new Minerals Local Plan has been established. This is unlikely to be known until consultation on issues and options has been completed and the preferred approach agreed. The preparation of these additional documents will be subject to the same consultation procedures including an independent examination that apply to the Minerals Local Plan.
Current Progress
To date some background evidence on both documents has been collected as part of the wider evidence gathering from the Minerals Local Plan. For updates please refer to the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme.
