Agenda item

The Cabinet considered reviewing and revising the Minerals and Waste Local Development Scheme in order to keep it up to date.

In the ensuing debate, the following principal points were raised:

·         The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Infrastructure introduced the report and commented that this was the 4^th call for sites for the Minerals Plan because the Council needed a 5 year supply of sand and gravel. The Waste Core Strategy required reviewing every 5 years. The last review found no significant failings and this would be monitored annually

·         It was anticipated that the aggregate from the Energy from Waste plant at Hartlebury would at some point be available for use in road building process. The Council was getting to a point where it might need to supplement its supply of minerals from outside the county

·         A member from outside the Cabinet urged that the Strategic Policy Framework for the Minerals Local Plan be developed with haste to prevent pre-emptive applications that would need to be addressed outside the plan. He stressed the importance of local input to avoid clustering of sites in local areas and requested that the consultation document be published asap and took account of Neighbourhood plans and that adequate resources be made available to enable site allocations to proceed. The Leader commented that it was intended to have the strategic framework and overview available asap to allow the determination of applications to include the involvement of local communities. The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Infrastructure added that if an application for a site was forthcoming it was not incumbent on the Council to accept it. The Council had policies about where it wished to have sites and it was hoped to avoid clustering and destruction of local amenities in that way

·         It was important that when consideration was given to the allocation of sites for minerals extraction that due care and attention was paid to the restoration of the area.

RESOLVED: that

a)    the Minerals and Waste Local Development Scheme (LDS) July 2018 – June 2021 be approved;

b)    the Director of Economy and Infrastructure be authorised to make minor amendments to the LDS prior to publication;

c)    delegated authority be granted to the Director of Economy and Infrastructure  in consultation with the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Infrastructure, to approve the preparation of the draft Mineral Site Allocations Development Plan Document, carry out the informal preliminary consultations on it in accordance with the LDS, and make any amendments to it to create a final draft, without the need for further formal approval by Cabinet;

d)    it be agreed that the final draft Minerals Site Allocations Development Plan Document then be returned to Cabinet for recommendation to Council for approval before it is formally published for public representations as a statutory 'draft' Development Plan Document and submitted to the Secretary of State for examination;

e)    delegated authority be granted to the Director of Economy and Infrastructure, in consultation with the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Economy and Infrastructure, to approve the preparation of a new draft Waste Local Plan and the informal preliminary consultations on it in accordance with the LDS, and any amendments to it, without the need for further formal approval by Cabinet; and

f)     it be agreed that the final draft Waste Local Plan be returned to Cabinet for recommendation to Council for approval before it is formally published for public representations as a statutory 'draft' Development Plan Document and submitted to the Secretary of State for examination.