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October 2003 a Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund FFORWARD with LLEICESTERSHIRE AAGGREGATE GGRANTS Bardon Quarry Leicestershire County Council Annual Report for DEFRA 2002 – 2003 October 2003 MAPS® aerial photography copyright of UK Perspectives. For further information please contact UK Perspectives c/o Infoterra Ltd, Arthur Street, Barwell, Leicestershire LE9 8GZ Tel: 01455 849207 Foreword Welcome to the first FLAG annual report covering the 2002/2003 financial year. Leicestershire County Council was very pleased to have been chosen by DEFRA as one of the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) distributing bodies last year, since, as you will read later on, this county is one of the major aggregate producing areas of England. As such, many communities in Leicestershire have in the past, and still are, experiencing both the benefits and disadvantages of having aggregate sites on their doorstep. For them, the opportunities provided by FLAG in mitigating the impact of these substantial sites, has been most welcome. I think it is fair to say that for all concerned with FLAG during its first year of operation, it has been an exciting and rewarding time. To go from zero to a fully operational scheme within a few months was a challenge for potential applicants as well as for Leicestershire County Council. The majority of the applications have come from community groups and parish councils and I must commend them for both their foresight and dedication – preparing a grant aid application, organising the fund-raising and overseeing the works is a mammoth task. Sadly, there has been insufficient grant aid to assist every applicant and I am aware of a large number of potential projects that are still being developed and have yet to surface as applications. I hope that having read this report you will not only be impressed by what has already been achieved, but will support Leicestershire County Council in their bid to extend the current ALSF programme for at least a further 3 years after its current closing date of March 31st 2004. There is still much work to be done. Ernie White CC Leicestershire County Council Lead Cabinet Member for Community Services 1. Introduction FLAG (Forward with Leicestershire Aggregate Grants) was launched by Leicestershire County Council in September 2002, supported by money from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF), the overall management of which rests with DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). The ALSF itself was launched in April 2002 by the then Environment Minister Michael Meacher, with the aim of helping to offset some of the environmental damage caused by aggregate extraction. It was designed to run as a two-year programme, with its funding coming from part of the income generated by the newly introduced Aggregates Levy. It will perhaps surprise those of you who don’t know Leicestershire well, that it is one of the three largest aggregate producing counties in England – over 16 million tonnes produced in 2001. As you can see from the map overleaf, aggregate sites are found across the whole county. Granite, limestone, ironstone, sand and gravel are extracted and many of the quarries lie close to residential areas, where the impact of these operations can sometimes be significantly felt. FLAG grants have specifically targeted those communities and areas most affected by aggregate extraction. The response from these communities has been so positive that the scheme is over- subscribed with a wide range of inventive and worthwhile grant applications. 2. Background Information Leicestershire has a long history of aggregate production, stretching back well into the 1800’s. The eastern side of the county has many ironstone quarries, many of which are now disused. In the central Leicestershire area along the River Soar, Wreake and Trent valleys, there have been and still are, extensive sand and gravel extraction sites. Similar mineral deposits are found elsewhere to the south and west of the county. Large quantities of granite are quarried in and around the Charnwood Forest and as far south as Sapcote, whilst substantial limestone quarries are found close to the Derbyshire border. Many of these sites, and especially those in the centre of the county, are found close to towns and villages. In some instances, there are strong links between the development of the aggregate sites themselves and the adjacent settlements. These aggregate sites have had, and are still having, a physical and visual impact on the surrounding communities. 3. Developing FLAG When developing FLAG, Leicestershire County Council officers drew on their many years of experience of initiating and running a wide range of environment-orientated grant programmes. Within the East Midlands region, Leicestershire has always been one of the leading grant aiding local authorities. Its SHIRE Grant programme currently provides over £550,000 for environmental and community based grants. It is interesting to note that the FLAG application form, grant aid conditions and assessment system have been adopted by at least one other ALSF distributing body as the basis of their operations. As well as complying with DEFRA’s requirements, FLAG was developed to complement rather than duplicate the SHIRE Grants programme, and in financial terms, plugs the funding gap below the ALSF schemes run by national distributing bodies like the Countryside Agency. In addition to its grant aid experience, the County Council is the Mineral Planning Authority for Leicestershire. This position provides it with a unique local knowledge of past and current aggregate extraction, contact with mineral operators, quarry liaison groups, parish councils, community groups and similar organisations. All of this experience was put to good use when developing FLAG and targeting potential applicants. 4. Administering FLAG The Environmental Action Team, within the County Council’s Community Services Department, manages FLAG’s day to day operation. This is the same team that helps to administer the SHIRE Environmental Grants programme and thus its staff are skilled in this type of work. Another advantage of this arrangement is that the Environmental Action Team is set within the same branch of the Community Services Department as the staff overseeing Minerals Development Control, Sport and Recreation, Village Halls and Historic Buildings. This working relationship assists potential applicants to develop their projects, assess applications and oversee the final work. Staff also have access to a huge range of professional expertise elsewhere within the Community Services Department and across the authority as a whole, including ecologists, archaeologists, quantity surveyors, building surveyors, civil engineers and solicitors. This helps to ensure that applicants are given the best advice, that their applications are assessed thoroughly and accurately, and that a high standard of work is achieved. 4.1 Marketing FLAG From the outset, it was clear that, because of the tight financial timetable set by DEFRA, the marketing of FLAG would need to be targeted at those communities and sites where there was the greatest likelihood of applications meeting the ALSF’s goals. To achieve this, officers undertook an internal consultation exercise that generated an initial short-list of 30 potential schemes. This exercise was progressed by contacting the organisations linked to the potential schemes so the benefits that FLAG might provide could be fully explored. In addition, press articles were written for the Leicestershire daily and weekly newspapers and the County Council’s own newspaper, “Leicestershire Matters” (circulated to over 260,000 households and also available on the LCC website). Elected members, officers and quarry liaison groups were briefed about FLAG, and every opportunity was taken through the many partnership organisations with which the County Council works, to publicise the scheme. This work paid off, with 57 enquires being received by the FLAG administrative officer. The marketing of FLAG does not stop when an application has been approved, since the FLAG administrative officer liaises with the applicant about ongoing publicity, an opening ceremony and the formal hand-over of the specially commissioned FLAG plaque. 4.2 Assessing FLAG applications To ensure that all applications were dealt with in a fair, consistent and systematic manner, a points based assessment scheme was developed. It should be stressed that the final assessment of any application takes place only after detailed discussions with the applicant and a visit to the site of the potential scheme. This contact aims to ensure that the application is as well considered and developed as possible – including exploring all potential funding avenues - and is ready for it’s final detailed assessment. The following criteria are used during the final assessment. • Demonstrable environmental impact – any application failing to reach the minimum score for demonstrable environmental impact cannot be considered for FLAG support. This aspect of the assessment system is also used to determine whether prospective applications will be eligible for FLAG support, thus saving the potential applicant’s time and effort in preparing something that might ultimately fail. The following factors are considered when assessing the extent of environmental impact: proximity of the potential scheme to aggregate sites the level of visual intrusion direct effects such as noise, dust and vehicle movements whether the aggregate
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