Planning for Rutland’s Future - Issues and Options Consultation

Issue 11: Addressing minerals and waste requirements alongside environmental considerations

Strategic Objective 11: Ensuring a steady and adequate supply of minerals to meet national, regional and local needs whilst taking account of impacts on environments and local communities.

Minerals play a vital role in society. Aggregates and other types of construction minerals are needed to build homes, factories, offices and transport infrastructure. Other minerals are used in industry, food production and agriculture. Energy minerals like oil and gas provide the country with power and heating. Whilst seeking to deliver development, increase quality of life, and create sustainable communities, it is essential that the Council plans appropriately for minerals. Doing so ensures that the need for minerals by society and the economy, together with the impacts of extraction and processing on communities and the environment are managed in an integrated way.

Rutland's minerals resources are predominantly found in the eastern half of the county and consist mainly of Lincolnshire Limestone and siliceous clay. Whilst there are some isolated pockets of sand and gravels around the edge of the county (particularly the Welland Valley), these have not previously been worked.

Figure 5: Rutland's mineral resources

Ensuring an Adequate and Steady Supply of Minerals

There is a clear national policy to maintain an adequate and steady supply of minerals, particularly aggregates, to meet local as well as national needs. Limestone is the main type of mineral extracted in Rutland and has historically been the most important mineral resource, in terms of economic value, found in Rutland. Limestone is utilised as a source of crushed rock for uses such as constructional fill, roadstone and concrete and also for non-aggregate purposes including building stone, agricultural use, and cement manufacture.

To identify future requirements and demand for aggregates the Council has to prepare a Local Aggregate Assessment (LAA) that is updated each year. Future supply and demand are based on a rolling average of 10-year sales data and other local information. It looks at all supply options include the availability of secondary or recycled aggregates as well as imports and exports. The latest LAA is currently being prepared and will be available for the Preferred Options stage. The LAA will help to inform identification of an annual provision rate for aggregates to be set out through the Local Plan, and that the plan should seek to identify sufficient sites to deliver the plan's needs. The most recent LAA (reporting on 2020 data) identified ten and three-year sales averages for limestone aggregate (crushed rock) of 0.24 million tonnes (Mt) and 0.33 Mt respectively.

The NPPF sets out clear policy requirements in relation to a number of minerals. It requires the maintenance of landbanks of at least 7 years for sand and gravel, 10 years for crushed rock, 10 years for silica sand sites (more in some circumstances) and 25 years for clay. It also requires the Council to consider how to meet the demand for minerals for the repair of historic assets.

Efficient and Sustainable Use of Minerals

As minerals are a finite resource, the Council needs to ensure that they are used in a way that is appropriate, efficient, and sustainable. This can be done by encouraging the re-use and recycling of suitable materials to help reduce the amount of primary mineral extraction. This is supported by national policy and guidance. In doing so, there is a need to take into account the contribution secondary and recycled minerals make to the overall supply. Recycled and secondary minerals are those that, after processing or treatment, can potentially be used to substitute for primary or land-won aggregate and provide a more sustainable source of aggregate for construction. They may be derived from processing of construction, demolition and extraction waste (CDE) (recycled aggregate) or may be by-products of mineral extraction or processing, or industrial processes (secondary aggregate). Nationally, over 72 million tonnes of recycled and secondary aggregate material were produced in 2017, representing 29% of the British aggregates market.

Information on the amount of available recycled and secondary aggregates being produced in the area is variable and not considered to be completely reliable. It is therefore difficult to accurately assess the role that they play in aggregate supply and demand. In many cases CDE waste is processed on site using mobile plant and then either reused on site or taken direct to other construction sites for use. Collecting information from these sites is extremely difficult because of their temporary nature. However, the Local Aggregate Assessment will monitor production levels.

Safeguarding Mineral Resources

Minerals can only be worked where they are found. Therefore, the Council needs to make sure that proven resources are not needlessly sterilised by other types of surface development. The pressure on land from varying uses means that the Local Plan will need to set out an approach for safeguarding mineral resources to ensure that they are available to meet the future needs. This means defining Minerals Safeguarding Areas (MSAs) that highlight the presence of proven mineral deposits that are, or may become, of economic importance. It does not mean that it will necessarily be worked, nor does it rule out other types of development. It means that the presence of the resource needs to be taken into account by the Council in making decisions on planning applications and by developers when putting together proposals.

The Council could seek to define buffer zones around MSAs and consider the use of policies that support prior extraction of minerals. National Planning Practice Guidance on minerals and the BGS Guidance set out advice on how MSAs should be defined.

As well as mineral resources, national policy also requires the Council to safeguard infrastructure associated with minerals processing, handling, storage and transportation within the Local Plan.

Managing the Impacts of Mineral Development

As well as ensuring a steady and adequate supply of minerals, their efficient use, and safeguarding key resources and infrastructure, the Council needs to make sure that the impacts of all types of minerals development including extraction and processing on their surroundings are managed appropriately. The Local Plan will need to include policies to manage the impact of all forms of development, including minerals, on the wider environment and communities.

The Government's Planning Practice Guidance sets out some of the environmental considerations that need to be taken into account when assessing proposals for minerals extraction. Examples include noise, dust, air quality, lighting, traffic, landscape, and flood risk.

Mineral extraction tends to be a temporary use of land, albeit one that can last for a number of years. National policy seeks to ensure that the Local Plan sets out policies to encourage the reclamation of former minerals workings at the earliest opportunity and that high quality restoration and aftercare of mineral sites takes place.

Sustainable Waste Management and Meeting Waste Management Needs

Nearly all activities create waste, whether it is through the production or consumption of goods and services as part of the economy and wider society. This means that it needs to be managed in the most appropriate and sustainable manner. Waste is viewed as a resource rather than something that is to be disposed of, whilst its management is seen as being a part of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. Government policy set out in the National Waste Strategy (2013) clearly points towards a zero-waste economy. This means that material resources like waste are re-used, recycled or recovered, wherever possible, and only disposed of as the last option. This contributes to developing a place that is cleaner and greener.

Figure 6: The waste hierarchy (Source: National Planning Policy for Waste, Appendix A)

In a similar vein to the NPPF, the National Planning Policy for Waste (NPPW), stresses a positive approach to planning for waste management and delivering sustainable development in accordance with the waste hierarchy. This prioritises the options for managing waste in order according to their environmental impact.

Because Rutland is a small area, the overall waste arising is relatively low when compared to other authorities, although evidence in preparing the municipal Waste Strategy indicates that Rutland is higher than the national average and many of our near neighbours for generation of municipal residual waste. Household waste makes up over 95% of Rutland's municipal waste. Previous estimates indicate that Rutland produces around 0.120 Mt of waste, comprised of the principal waste streams: municipal; commercial and industrial; construction, demolition, and excavation; and hazardous. The level of arisings and land use context may impact on the appropriateness and viability of some forms of waste management, and their scale. Most of the waste produced in Rutland is exported to surrounding authorities where it undergoes processing in preparation for recycling and reuse (including composting and inert recycling), is otherwise treated, or disposed of to landfill. Previous estimates indicate a total recovery rate of around 80%.

The NPPW requires Local Plans to identify sufficient opportunities to meet the identified needs for managing waste in their area. This should be achieved by driving waste management up the waste hierarchy, provided this does not endanger human health or harm the environment. Plans are also required to provide a framework within which communities and businesses are engaged and take responsibility for their own waste in line with the 'proximity principle'.

The evidence base, when developed, will provide us with an understanding of how much waste will need to be managed now and in future years together with the capacity and type of facilities Rutland needs, or will need, to do so. The outcome of this work and any policy approach developed in the Local Plan will need to factor in the impacts of national and local targets for waste recycling, recovery, and re-use in the type and nature of facilities needed.

As part of developing the Local Plan's evidence base, the Council will look closely at waste movements to/from Rutland and examine capacity elsewhere as part of the ongoing Duty to Co-operate with other waste planning authorities.

Location of New Facilities

National planning policy requires the Council to identify suitable sites and/or areas for sustainable waste management. The NPPW sets out the type of locations that the Local Plan should consider for new waste facilities as well as guidance to assist us in determining the suitability of sites. Appendix B of the NPPW also provides a list of criteria that can be used to assess sites for inclusion in Local Plans.

These criteria include: the protection of water quality and resources as well as the management of flood risk; land instability; landscape and visual impacts; nature conservation; conserving the historic environment; traffic and access; air emissions, including dust; odours; vermin and birds; noise, light and vibration; litter; and potential land use conflict

The Local Plan will build on this approach and will consider within the local context. The location of any new waste facilities in Rutland will need to be broadly related to the chosen spatial strategy as well as the area's settlement pattern. The Employment Land Review (ELR) and Call for Sites process should assist us in helping to identify potentially suitable sites. The Waste Needs Assessment will also provide a good overview of existing facilities and capacity.

Managing the Impacts of Waste Development

It is essential that the Local Plan balances the need for new waste management facilities with their potential impacts on the wider environment and, in particular, on nearby communities. The Local Plan has to make sure that existing or proposed waste management facilities or sites/areas identified for such facilities are not impacted upon by non-waste development. The NPPW provides guidance for decision-makers on planning applications for both waste and non-waste development. The policy approach to be adopted in the Local Plan will need to build on this.