Agenda item

(To consider a report from Adrian Winkley, Minerals and Waste Policy and Compliance Manager, Planning and Neil McBride, Head of Planning, on a Review of the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan, which is being presented to the Executive on 2 February 2021. The views of the Committee will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Consideration was given to a report from the Minerals and Waste Policy and Compliance Manager, Planning and the Head of Planning, on a Review of the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan, which would be be presented to the Executive on 2 February 2021. The views of the Committee would be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of the item. Members were reminded that an amended Appendix A to the report had been circulated to them and published on 7 January 2021.

A provisional review of the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan (LMWLP) had recently been undertaken by officers in accordance with the statutory procedure ("the Review") (Appendix A of the report). This had concluded that the following policies were not fully effective and should be updated: Policy M1 (Recycled and secondary aggregates), Policy M4 (Proposals for sand and gravel extraction), Policy M5 (Limestone), Policy M11 (Safeguarding of Mineral Resources), Policy M13 (Associated Industrial Development), Policy W1 (Future requirements for new waste facilities), Policy W3 (Spatial strategy for new waste facilities), Policy W4 (Locational criteria for new waste facilities in and around main urban areas, Policy W6 (Landfill), Policy W7 (Small scale waste facilities), Policy SL3 (Waste site and area allocations). The report also proposed that other policies would benefit from being updated in order to: improve the clarity and focus of the policies;ensure greater consistency between the policies; allow any subsequent changes to legislation/national policy to be incorporated into the updated plan; ensure account was taken of any new social, economic and environmental priorities (including those arising from the pandemic) and enable greater public involvement in the process.

Subject to the Executive's endorsement of the Review, the approval of the full County Council would be sought to update the LMWLP. Work on the update would primarily be undertaken by the in-house Minerals and Waste Policy Team, but with some supporting documents prepared by external consultants. The process would be carried out in accordance with the programme set out in the proposed Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme (Appendix B of the report) involving a number of stages - each requiring public consultation.

The report recommended that the Executive endorse the Review of the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan (Appendix A) and recommend to the full County Council that the whole Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan was updated in accordance with the programme set out in the proposed Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme (Appendix B of the report) and that the Executive authorise the Head of Planning Services to make any minor amendments to the Review of the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan (Appendix A of the report) and the Lincolnshire Minerals and Waste Development Scheme (Appendix B of the report) before they were considered by the full County Council, which may be necessary to allow them to be published on the County Council's website.

Members considered the report, and during the discussion the following comments were noted:-

·         The County Council had objected to the Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan due to the low level of provision made for sand and gravel, which was based on past sales. Nottinghamshire's past sales had been suppressed due to sites being mothballed, and sand and gravel had instead been imported from Lincolnshire sites. There were therefore implications and concerns for Lincolnshire from the proposed levels, as these might result in the need for additional quarries in Lincolnshire to meet the shortfalls in Nottinghamshire.

·         There had been a move away from landfill sites in Lincolnshire, with most household waste now taken to the Energy from Waste site, and it was expected that there would be even less reliance on landfill sites in the future. Any proposals for waste sites would be subject to public consultation. Councillor E Poll advised that only about 5000 tonnes of household waste went to landfill each year which could not be disposed of by other means.

·         There were specific sites allocated in the current plan for sand and gravel extraction as operators had submitted sites during the preparation of the plan for consideration. However, there was little interest from the waste industry in identifying waste sites and only one specific site had been allocated.

·         Policy W5 had not been identified as needing to be updated but would be reviewed with all the other policies. Concerns were raised about the inconsistency of policy W5 which meant some planning applications would be considered by the relevant district council and others by the County Council depending on the origin of the waste. It was suggested that it would be more consistent to have one council deal with planning applications in relation to policy W5.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the recommendations to the Executive outlined above and in the report be supported;

2.    That the comments of the Committee as outlined above be passed on to the Executive for its consideration.