DCC’s newly adopted Minerals Plan was in preparation for years and years. It came up with various Policies and Objectives.
It’s already clear, with Aggregate Industries’ multi-million mile haulage plan for Straitgate Farm, how little Objective 1 ("minimising transportation by road and generation of greenhouse gases") stands for.
Now Sibelco has found, following the approval of the A382 road improvement scheme at Newton Abbot, that Objective 2 doesn’t stand for anything either.
Objective 2 is all about safeguarding mineral resources, particularly those that are scarce or of national importance. The Minerals Plan claims:
For Devon’s industrial minerals and some aggregate minerals, non-mineral development will normally be opposed where it would sterilise resources of economic value. 3.3.14
We’ve written about Mineral Safeguarding before, most recently here. We argued that Devon’s new Minerals Plan could blight thousands of homes across the county and Is this really the best way to 'safeguard' minerals? There’s currently a DCC consultation about it. DCC says:
The Minerals Plan features the introduction of "Mineral Safeguarding Areas" which aim to secure valuable mineral resources from sterilisation by new development, to ensure that they remain available for use by future generations.
But where was Mineral Safeguarding when Sibelco needed it? Sibelco was concerned that the A382 improvements would sterilise significant reserves of "nationally scarce" ball clay and objected to the scheme. Sibelco's concerns were ignored, and following DCC's decision the company has lodged a Judicial Review. Here is the DevonLive article, and an excerpt from it:
A Sibleco spokesman said: “Sibelco has taken this course of action primarily in the interests of the UK’s strategic minerals reserves.
“Devon County Council, in common with other authorities across the country, is legally obliged to identify deposits and outline how they will be managed within a published and regularly reviewed Minerals Plan.
“In some areas deposits are safeguarded by formal consultation zones. One example is Newton Abbot and the Bovey Basin with the recognised economic importance of its ball clay reserves. The area relevant to the A382 programme is identified it as lying within the Mineral Safeguarding Area defined in the Devon Minerals Plan.
“Additionally, the Officer’s Report failed to include any reference to the section of the National Planning Policy Framework which advises that ‘great weight’ should be given to minerals extraction and that permission should not ‘normally’ be granted for non-mineral development where that would sterilise reserves.
“Given that significant reserves of ball clay will be affected by the A382 programme we argue that members did not have the relevant information that would have allowed an informed decision.
“Should similar mistakes or omissions be made again in Devon, or worryingly anywhere else in the UK, the implications for our strategic minerals reserves are grave. We will continue to press for dialogue to resolve the outstanding issues and see if a resolution can be reached.”
A Devon County Council spokesman said: “Following the grant of planning permission for the A382 scheme, Sibelco lodged an application for a judicial review of that decision. Currently the parties have agreed a three month stay to those proceedings.”
