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ITEM CA15

CABINET – 7 MARCH 2006

OXFORDSHIRE MINERALS AND WASTE DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

Report by Head of Sustainable Development

1. On 21 December 2004 the Executive approved the Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme 2005 – 2008 in principle and authorised the Head of Sustainable Development to finalise it for submission to the Secretary of State. The Development Scheme was submitted to the Secretary of State in March 2005, and came into effect on 16 May 2005. It has been published on the Council’s website. A copy is in the Members’ Resource Centre.
2. The Minerals and Waste Development Scheme is a public statement of the Council’s programme for production of the minerals and waste development documents that will make up the Minerals and Waste Development Framework, covering a period of 3 years or more. The Development Framework will replace the Minerals and Waste Local Plan.

Need to Revise the Development Scheme

3. The Minerals and Waste Development Scheme 2005 – 2008 lists the following proposed local minerals and waste documents, to be prepared over the period March 2005 to July 2008:
   
   

1. Statement of Community Involvement – policy on community involvement in minerals and waste development documents and planning applications;
2. Minerals and Waste Core Strategy – vision, objectives and overall spatial strategy for minerals and waste development (development plan document);
3. Minerals Site Proposals and Policies – proposed locations and detailed policies for future minerals developments (development plan document);
4. Waste Site Proposals and Policies – proposed locations and detailed policies for future waste management developments (development plan document);
5. Proposals Map – spatial representation of policies and site proposals in documents (b), (c) and (d) above (development plan document); and
6. Minerals and Waste Development Code of Practice – detailed guidance on the operation of development sites (supplementary planning document).
   
   
4. Table 2 from the current Development Scheme, which is a schedule of these proposed minerals and waste development documents with an outline timetable for their preparation, is reproduced at Annex 1 (download as .doc file). The Government has set certain stages in the preparation of development documents as ‘key milestones’ which planning authorities should meet. Meeting the key milestones in the Development Scheme is a Government Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI 200b). After commencement of preparation of a document, the next key milestone is consultation on preferred options and proposals.
5. Work commenced on the preparation of these documents in March 2005. Preparation of the Statement of Community Involvement is running to schedule; it was submitted to the Secretary of State in February 2006 and is expected to be adopted by the end of this year. Preparation of the other documents is currently running approximately 6 months behind schedule. Technical work and community engagement is underway, but consultation on a Minerals and Waste Issues and Options Report that was due to be carried out in September / October 2005 has been delayed and will now take place in April / May 2006.
6. Preparation of the Issues and Options Report has taken longer than expected and priority had to be given to completion and submission to the Secretary of State of the Annual Monitoring Report 2005 and the Statement of Community Involvement, which were key milestones. This delay will affect the remaining programme for documents (b) to (f) in paragraph 3 above and the timetable in the current Development Scheme cannot now be met. All the key milestones have been met so far, but the key milestone of consultation on preferred options and proposals for documents (b) to (f), currently programmed for May / June 2006, will be missed if the Development Scheme is not revised.
7. The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires that the County Council maintains the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme and revises it when considered appropriate. The need to review the Development Scheme in the light of delay in the programme of work was signalled in the Minerals and Waste Annual Monitoring Report 2005 that was approved by the Cabinet on 15 November 2005 and submitted to the Secretary of State in December. The Development Scheme also needs to be rolled forward to maintain a 3 year programme, as required to meet the Government’s Best Value Performance Indicator BVPI 200a. A review of the Scheme will also enable links between the programmes for the Minerals and Waste Development Framework and the procurement of a new waste treatment contract to be considered.

Revised Minerals and Waste Development Scheme 2006 – 2009

8. A revised programme for the preparation of the proposed minerals and waste development documents is set out in Annex 2 (download as .doc file). This covers the next three years, up to July 2009. No change is proposed to the list of minerals and waste development documents, but the revised timetable includes changes to the phasing of document preparation as well as to individual document preparation timetables. The current Development Scheme shows the core strategy and the two minerals and waste sites documents being prepared together on a parallel timetable. However, it has become apparent that the work required for preparing the two site proposals documents will take longer than that for the core strategy. Having a timetable for preparing the core strategy running ahead of that for the minerals and waste sites documents would have the advantage that identification of sites would be done within the context of strategies for the location of minerals and waste development and should therefore be more robust and understandable. It would also avoid the possibility of site identification work having to be redone in the event that independent examination of the core strategy resulted in it having to be significantly changed. This is supported by new guidance from the Planning Inspectorate, issued in December 2005, which advises the preparation of core strategies in advance of site allocations documents.
9. The revised programme shows for the core strategy: consultation on preferred options and proposals in November / December 2006, submission to the Secretary of State in July 2007 and adoption by October 2008; and for the two sites documents: consultation on preferred options and proposals in May / June 2007, submission to the Secretary of State in February 2008 and adoption by July 2009. This puts back adoption of the core strategy by three months compared with the existing programme, and the adoption date for the two site proposals documents is put back by a year. This difference reflects the considerably greater amount of work involved in identifying, consulting on and assessing detailed site options. The programme for preparation of the minerals and waste code of practice has been revised to fit better with preparation of the development plan documents, but with adoption at the same time as for the core strategy (October 2008).
10. This revised programme takes into account greater certainty about availability of staff resources following completion of work on the Structure Plan and the sub-regional advice for the South East Plan. Whilst there are uncertainties with the new development framework preparation process, I am confident that the revised timetable now proposed is realistic given the time and resource requirements estimated in the project plan, subject to no unforeseen circumstances arising.
11. The revised Development Scheme will have to be submitted to and agreed by the Secretary of State (GOSE) before it can be brought into effect. It is due to be submitted before the end of March.
12. In addition to revision of the timetables for preparation of the minerals and waste development documents, some minor amendments need to be made to the text of the Development Scheme, to update it and to cover the new period. I am therefore recommending that the programme for the revised Development Scheme be approved in principle and that authority to finalise the Scheme for submission to the Secretary of State be delegated to the Head of Sustainable Development in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development.

Financial and Staff Implications

13. The resource implications of preparing the Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Development Framework are set out in the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme. The Council’s budget makes provision for the resources currently estimated to be required for preparation of the Development Framework over the next 3 years. The resources required to meet the programme in the revised Development Scheme will be kept under review as part of the management of the project.

RECOMMENDATIONS

14. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED:

1. to approve the programme at Annex 2 in principle as the basis for the revised Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme 2006 – 2009 for submission to the Secretary of State;
2. to authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, to finalise the revised Development Scheme and submit it to the Secretary of State;
3. to authorise the Head of Sustainable Development to resolve as specified by Regulation 11(1)(b) of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 for the purpose of bringing the revised Development Scheme into effect as soon as the condition in Regulation 11(1)(a) (procedures following submission to the Secretary of State) is met.

CHRIS COUSINS
Head of Sustainable Development

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Peter Day, tel. Oxford 815544

February 2006

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