Wednesday, 4 November 2020

DCC says local plan policy tackling climate crisis should be ‘implemented robustly’

Since Aggregate Industries applied for planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – and haul material a staggering 2.5 million miles in total to be processed – Devon County Council has declared a Climate Emergency. We have posted about it. Devon County Council’s Chief Executive Phil Norrey said:

This is not about gestures, this is about action
And it must be about action. The UN warned we have 12 years to limit the climate change catastrophe. That was 2 years ago. Every day, more signs of our global heating calamity are emerging; recently we learnt about the release of Arctic methane deposits adding to the domino effect.


Local plans set out policies used by county councils to determine planning applications. They are not prepared for decoration, for fancy bookends, for pressing flowers, but to inform future development. There is no point going to the lengths and expense of preparing local plans if the policies contained within are to be cast aside whenever they get in the way. 

Local plans are periodically reviewed. The Devon Waste Plan, for example, adopted in December 2014, was reviewed this year, taking into consideration amongst other things the Devon Climate Emergency. A Review of Climate Emergency Declaration implications for Devon Waste Plan was published in August 2020:
The Devon Climate Emergency is considered to be a significant change in local circumstance since the adoption of the Waste Plan which requires consideration. 1.1.5
The review presented within this report has identified that tackling climate change features strongly as a key theme within the current Waste Plan. It is central to its vision, objectives and policies. The Devon Waste Plan policies contain a number of measures which seek to reduce and adapt to the impacts of climate change. 1.6.1
The review concluded that:
...at this stage, the existing measures in the Waste Plan are sufficient in the context of the declaration, providing they are implemented robustly. 1.6.2
Providing they are implemented robustly. 

Waste planning and mineral planning often go hand in hand. In fact, the Devon Waste Plan was authored by the same person that compiled the Devon Minerals Plan. Like the Waste Plan, the Minerals Plan also contains policies to tackle climate change. The Devon Climate Emergency would again be a significant change in local circumstance since the adoption of the Minerals Plan. According to the Minerals Plan:
One of the biggest challenges facing Devon’s communities and environment, together with the wider world, is climate change driven by global warming. 3.4.1
Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change is a key consideration and statutory duty for the Devon Minerals Plan, and will be a cross-cutting theme for the Strategy. 2.2.4
Rather than being considered as a discrete issue, climate change is treated as a thread running through the Minerals Plan that influences a range of Policies. In particular: (a) the Spatial Strategy (Policy M1) ensures that the distances that minerals are transported by road are minimised... 3.4.7
Distances that minerals are transported by road are minimised.

Clearly, given Devon County Council’s Climate Emergency Declaration, Minerals Plan policies relating to mitigating climate change should also be implemented robustly. What is the point in declaring a Climate Emergency otherwise?

But the Minerals Plan doesn’t only cover general policies; it contains specific policies on specific sites, including for Straitgate Farm. For this site, the Minerals Plan does not say it’s OK to transport 53,000 28-tonne loads of as-dug material 23 miles from quarry face to processing plant – a total of 46 miles for each load – as Aggregate Industries has proposed. The Minerals Plan for Straitgate says:


Minimal transportation by road.

Clearly we can’t rely on Aggregate Industries to employ a moral backbone and do the right thing; as we posted, Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again.

So, if Devon County Council is serious about "one of the biggest challenges facing Devon’s communities and environment", if declaring a Climate Emergency is to mean anything at all, it must indeed ensure that policies that seek to reduce carbon emissions do just that, and are implemented robustly. It’s not rocket science. 

 

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