Buckinghamshire Minerals & Waste Local Plan 2004-2016
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Buckinghamshire Minerals & Waste Local Plan 2004 -2016 June 2006 Foreword The County Council has been preparing local plans to control and guide minerals and waste development in Buckinghamshire for some twenty years. This Plan - the Buckinghamshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan - was adopted by the Council in April 2006, and is the latest product in a long and continuous line of local planning activity. This Plan represents the culmination of a long programme of work which commenced in May 2002. During the four years since then, the County Council received a great many comments and suggestions about what it should contain, and how our emerging ideas could be improved, from a wide variety of sources. These ranged from operators and industry bodies, Government departments and agencies, local authorities both within and outside Buckinghamshire; Parish Councils; environmental and amenity bodies; voluntary societies; residents' groups; and large numbers of local people. To all those who contributed comments and advice as the Plan progressed towards adoption, I would like to express the Council's grateful thanks. Buckinghamshire is not an island, however, and we have also had to take full account of new and evolving Government guidance for more sustainable waste management and minerals production. In addition, the Council has worked closely with the Regional Assembly on relevant emerging regional strategies and has had some influence upon their nature. These, in turn, form a framework for some of the important policies and proposals contained in the Plan, not least the appropriate provision to be made for future sand and gravel working and targets for waste recycling. To summarise, the aims of the Plan to 2016 are for: • Reducing demand upon natural resources • Less pollution risk and greenhouse gas emissions • Less use of primary, land-won minerals and more of recycled material • Higher standards of site restoration • A slowing down in the rate of waste generation • Less landfill, more recycling and composting • Wastes managed at the most appropriate level • Less movement of waste There is, especially with future waste management, considerable uncertainty as to the nature and location of future technologies that will be necessary to recover value or energy from waste. We have planned for reduced reliance upon landfill, and in the earlier years of the plan we are seeking to maximise the contribution of recycling and composting. But in later years these measures will be insufficient to meet national and regional targets and the use of higher waste recovery technologies will become necessary. The Plan therefore provides a policy context that covers a range of future possibilities. Finally, notwithstanding Government changes in 2004 to the planning system, the County Council remains responsible for local minerals and waste planning (and the control of such development after this takes place). It is important to note that this Plan will have a fundamental role in providing a framework to guide the preparation of the Council's new "Development Plan Documents" which will identify locations for the future waste and minerals development that will be needed in Buckinghamshire to 2021. I would encourage all stakeholders and consultees who have contributed to this Plan to remain engaged in forthcoming consultations as we develop these Documents. As Cabinet member, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Strategic Planning staff for the quality of their contribution. The people of Buckinghamshire can be confident that it is of the highest order, both in relation to this present Minerals & Waste Local Plan and also in their work over the whole range of Strategic Planning activities at the County Council. Rodney Royston Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning Contents Section Page Section Page Chapter 1 Introduction Policy 15: Waste Transfer 1.1 General 3 3.6 31 Facilities Policy 16: Anaerobic and The Duty to Plan for Mineral 1.2 3.7 Mechanical – Biological 32 Extraction & Waste Management 3 Treatment Plant Policy 17: Energy from Waste 1.3 Overriding Aims 3 3.8 33 Plant Policy 18: Landfill and 1.4 Context 4 3.9 35 Landraising 1.5 The Need for Review 4 3.10 Policy 19: Calvert Landfill Site 36 Policy 20: Landfill Gas Collection 1.6 Scope and Content 5 3.11 37 & Energy Recovery 1.7 How to Use This Plan 5 3.12 Policy 21: Hazardous Wastes 38 Policy 22: Inert Wastes and Inert Chapter 2 Minerals 3.13 39 Waste Recycling Policy 23: Sewage Treatment Policy 1: Overarching Minerals 2.1 8 3.14 Works & Management of Sewage 40 Extraction Principles Sludge General Environmental 2.2 Policy 2: Aggregates Landbank 9 Chapter 4 Policies Policy 3: Preferred Areas for Policy 24: Protection of Key 2.3 11 4.1 42 Sand and Gravel Extraction Environmental Assets Policy 25: Protection of Other 2.4 Policy 4: Area of Search 12 4.2 Environmentally Important Sites 43 & Features Policy 5: Borrow Pits & Other Policy 26: Protection of 2.5 13 4.3 44 Windfall Sites Agricultural Land Policy 6: Alternative Aggregates Policy 27: Protection of 2.6 14 4.4 45 Production The Green Belt Policy 7: The Transport of 2.7 16 4.5 Policy 28: Amenity 46 Aggregates 2.8 Policy 8: Other Minerals 17 4.6 Policy 29: Buffer Zones 47 Policy 30: Proximity Principle and 2.9 Policy 9: Oil Exploration 17 4.7 48 Sustainable Transport Policy 31: Restoration and Chapter 3 Waste 4.8 49 Aftercare Policy 10: Overarching Waste 3.1 20 4.9 Policy 32:Restoration of Old Sites 50 Management Principles Policy 11: Imported Wastes and Policy 33: Groundwater and 3.2 25 4.10 51 Landfill Sites Floodplain Protection Policy 12: Integrated Waste Policy 34: Aviation Safeguard 3.3 27 4.11 52 Management Areas Policy 13: Recycling Composting 3.4 28 Facilities Policy 14: Household Waste 3.5 29 Recycling Centres (HWRCs) 1 Section Page Section Page Chapter 5 Development Control Policies Maps Policy 35: Best Practicable 5.1 53 1 Proposals Map and Inset Areas 7 Environmental Option Proposals Map – Inset Area A Policy 36: Planning Application 5.2 54 2 and Mineral Consultation Area Issues (sleeve) Policy 37: Environmental 5.3 56 3 Proposals Map – Inset Area B 19 Assessment 5.4 Policy 38: Planning Obligations 57 4 Survey Map (sleeve) Policy 39: Site Monitoring and Landfilling and Land Raising 5.5 58 5 Enforcement Sites (sleeve) Waste Management Facilities Chapter 6 Monitoring 6 (Sleeve) 6.1 Policy 40: Plan Monitoring 60 Tables Preferred Areas, Waste Transfer Appendices Reserves Workable During the Site and Household Waste And 61 1 10 A Plan Period Recycling Centre List of Main Guidance and B Legislation informing the 81 2 Frequency of Site Visits Per Year 58 preparation of this Plan C Glossary 83 2 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 General 1.1.1This plan provides a land use policy framework to 2016 for mineral and waste planning within Buckinghamshire. It is the first combined Buckinghamshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan (BM&WLP) produced by the County Council and replaces the existing Minerals Local Plan (MLP) and Waste Local Plan (WLP). The area covered by this Plan is shown on Map 1. 1.1.2 Notwithstanding the major changes to the planning system introduced under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, transitional arrangements allow this plan to progress to adoption as a local plan under existing procedures. The BM&WLP will then be a "saved plan" for a period of three years from adoption (programmed for May 2006). Following adoption of this plan the Council will proceed directly to the preparation of the new Minerals and Waste Development Plan Documents (MWDPDs) as required by the Act. However the content of this plan will form the cornerstone of the successor MWDPDs and so consultees are reassured that the BM&WLP, and their engagement with it, will be of lasting value. 1.2 The Duty to Plan for Mineral Extraction and Waste Management 1.2.1 As the statutory Minerals Planning Authority (MPA) and Waste Disposal Authority (WDA), the 1 County Council is legally responsible for the control of mineral extraction and waste management within the plan area. It is guided in the operation of these powers by national, regional, Structure, and 2 Local Plan policies. In addition, the County Council must prepare a Minerals Local Plan (MLP), a Waste Local Plan (WLP), or a combined Minerals and Waste Local Plan (M&WLP), to set out detailed policies and proposals for mineral extraction and restoration and waste management. 1.2.2 The County Council believes that MLPs and WLPs are essential for the efficient implementation of minerals and waste development control. It takes the view that the interests of the minerals and waste industries and the public can best be served by the framework of sustainable policies and proposals contained in an approved and up-to-date M&WLP. 1.3 Overriding Aims 1.3.1 The aims of this Plan are: 3 4 a) to comply with Government guidance and Structure Plan policy to secure an acceptable and sustainable balance between society’s need for minerals and the need to manage waste whilst conserving resources and protecting the environment; b) to give greater certainty as to the location and scale of future mineral working and waste management facilities and to provide a clear guide to mineral and waste operators and to the public where mineral extraction and waste facilities are likely in principle to be acceptable and where not acceptable 5; 1 Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as amended by the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 and the Environment Act 1995, and as a statutory Minerals Planning Authority (MPA) and Waste Planning Authority (WPA).