This plan will look to provide "a Vision for how mineral development will be undertaken in Devon to 2033" and allocate where future mineral development should take place.
DCC wants to include Straitgate Farm "as a ‘Specific Site’ in recognition of the degree of evidence available on its potential impacts"; a specific site is "where viable resources are known to exist, landowners are supportive of minerals development and the proposal is likely to be acceptable in planning terms" - which to local people might look as though DCC has already made its mind up about Aggregate Industries' planning application.
Whilst DCC looks to earmark sites with many millions of tonnes of sand and gravel for many years into the future, building techniques are changing and more sustainable construction methods are being employed, more recycled and secondary aggregate is being used and demand for primary aggregate is falling. Locally, even the sources of primary aggregate are changing:
DCC wants to include Straitgate Farm "as a ‘Specific Site’ in recognition of the degree of evidence available on its potential impacts"; a specific site is "where viable resources are known to exist, landowners are supportive of minerals development and the proposal is likely to be acceptable in planning terms" - which to local people might look as though DCC has already made its mind up about Aggregate Industries' planning application.
Whilst DCC looks to earmark sites with many millions of tonnes of sand and gravel for many years into the future, building techniques are changing and more sustainable construction methods are being employed, more recycled and secondary aggregate is being used and demand for primary aggregate is falling. Locally, even the sources of primary aggregate are changing:
Glendinning is to begin manufacturing sand from limestone at its Ashburton quarry, and hopes in time "to produce manufactured sand that is the equal to, if not superior to, naturally occurring sand".
At the last count, Devon had almost 140 million tonnes of crushed rock aggregate reserves and 8 million tonnes of sand and gravel reserves.
