Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Growth & Infrastructure

Forward Plan Ref: 2011/190

Contact: Peter Day, Mineral & Waste Policy Team Leader Tel: (01865) 815544

Report by Deputy Director for Environment & Economy – Growth & Infrastructure (CA6).

The Minerals and Waste Core Strategy will set out the vision, objectives, spatial strategy, core policies and implementation framework for the supply of minerals and management of waste in Oxfordshire to 2030.  The County Council carried out consultation on draft Minerals and Waste Planning Strategies in September/October 2011.  Responses were received from 779 individuals and organisations, including 548 objections to a new mineral working area at Cholsey.

Overall the consultation has not resulted in any substantive issues being raised that call into question the principles of the draft strategies.  But a number of more detailed issues have been raised, in response to which some changes to the strategy policies are proposed.

The consultation responses, issues raised and possible changes to policies have been considered by the Minerals and Waste Plan Working Group; and the Growth and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee on 27 February 2012 considered key issues arising from the consultation and proposed changes to policies in response to them.

The report sets out the key issues arising from the consultation and actions that have been undertaken in response to them.  It draws conclusions on where changes need to be made to polices and it puts forward a set of proposed changes to the minerals, waste and core polices and the minerals and waste vision and objectives, for inclusion in a revised Minerals and Waste Core Strategy.

The next stage in the process, subject to approval by full Council, is for the revised Minerals and Waste Core Strategy to be published for public comment and submitted to the government for independent examination.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)              agree the amended minerals, waste and core policies in Annex 1 and the amended minerals and waste vision and objectives in Annex 2 as the basis of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy – Proposed Submission Document for approval by the full County Council.

(b)              delegate authority to finalise the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy – Proposed Submission Document, including amendments to the supporting text, to the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure.

(c)               delegate authority to finalise the County Council’s responses to the comments made in response to the Minerals Planning Strategy and Waste Planning Strategy Consultation Drafts, September 2011 to the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure.

(d)              RECOMMEND to the full County Council that the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy – Proposed Submission Document as finalised by the Cabinet Member for Growth & Infrastructure be approved and be published to enable representations to be made and submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination.

The Cabinet had before them a report (CA6) which set out the vision, objections, spatial strategy, core policies and implementation framework for the supply on minerals and management of waste in Oxfordshire to 2030.

Councillor Mathew stated that, in his opinion, none of the substantial issues and conflicts had been addressed when preparing the final draft and that the fundamental matters which had been stressed ad nauseam were conspicuous by their absence.  The matter of gravel miles; the north/south of the Thames dichotomy of the source versus the need, the effect of cumulative excavation, the lack of clarity of mathematics in the document on the calculation of primary and secondary gravel excavation and need, the lack of coordination with neighbouring counties had again been completely ignored.  For these reasons, he feared the core strategy remained unsound and in grave danger of being rejected.

Mr Chris Hargreaves, Policy Manager, West Oxfordshire District Council, spoke to express the concerns of that Council to the proposed minerals strategy. He referred to the previously expressed concerns about West Oxfordshire continuing to be the main supplier of sand and gravel within the County but focussed on the likelihood of the minerals strategy being found to be sound by a Planning Inspector expressing concerns that the proposed strategy was neither justified nor effective. In particular he suggested that for the strategy to be justified it must be the ‘most appropriate when considered against the reasonable alternatives’ and that there were genuine reasonable alternatives that should be explored in more detail before the plan is finalised. In terms of effectiveness of the strategy he stated that the Inspector would be looking at the extent to which the strategy is sufficiently flexible and what contingencies cater for a change in circumstances. He expressed the view that very few contingency measures had been put in place with all the County Council’s eggs in one basket and a lack of flexibility which could be provided by considering the alternatives. Finally he questioned the internal coherence of the strategy referring to the stated objective to ‘minimise the distance minerals need to be transported by road’ as against the proposed locational strategy which continued to separate the areas of working from the main locations of growth.

Mr Adrian Hatt, a solicitor from Hedges in Wallinford, spoke on behalf of the Communities against Gravel Extraction (CAGE) against the proposal to site a new gravel pit between Wallingford and Cholsey. He stated that it was not too late to make sensible changes to what they believed was a flawed strategy. He referred to two emails sent to Cabinet Members and the attachments: the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) map and the matrix produced by Susie Coyne, well-respected minerals consultant aspects of which would be addressed by other speakers. He stated that when looking to site a new gravel pit it was common sense and sound planning to locate it in an area least likely to impact on local people. He argued that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38