according to a survey by the MPA:
The Mineral Products Association has published their sixth Annual Mineral Planning Survey (AMPS 2017) which covers the period to the end of 2016. It is based upon data for the whole of Great Britain provided in confidence by MPA members.
The survey tells us that:
There has been a decrease in submissions for sand and gravel in 2016 (13 sites) compared to 2015 (20 sites), the majority being for extensions at existing operations.
5 applications for new sand and gravel sites were submitted in 2016, compared to 4 in 2015.
As with the two previous years no appeal decisions were identified by MPA members in 2016. It would still appear that where a refusal recommendation seems inevitable, the most likely outcome would be the withdrawal of the application.
Approvals for sand and gravel reduced to 6 during 2016 compared to 14 during 2015. There were 2 refusals in 2016, the first since 2012, and 2 further applications were withdrawn.
The withdrawn applications were not identified, but long suffering readers of this blog will know that Aggregate Industries withdrew two planning applications in 2016: the one for Straitgate that proposed to use someone else’s land for which the company claimed it had the rights but didn’t - and the one for Blackhill that proposed to extend the life of a mineral processing plant, but couldn’t demonstrate the necessary "exceptional circumstances" as to why it should continue to wreck Woodbury Common in the East Devon AONB.
The MPA worries about withdrawn applications:
Withdrawals can represent a significant waste of time, effort and resource both for industry and local authorities, and this issue will be monitored in coming AMPS reports to determine whether this is the beginning of a more worrying trend.
Of course, this ignores the significant waste of time, effort and resource also faced by local people. In the case of Straitgate and Blackhill - where AI had failed to do its homework first - scores of objections were effectively ripped up by DCC, and local people were told they would need to make new responses to the subsequent revised applications, which the company claimed would be "essentially the same".
The MPA also worries that withdrawn applications distort things:
More significantly, the number of applications that are withdrawn have the potential to distort the overall determination rate that is being observed and reported. If refusals are added to withdrawals, 40% of sand and gravels applications “failed’’ in 2016.
But the industry can console itself because, and for those who espouse the importance of Mineral Plans:
Over the past 10 years, 48% of new permissions issued were for sites that had not been allocated in mineral plans. In 2016 the figure was 44%.
