Local Minerals Plan - Progress

County Durham Local Minerals Plan

In January 2000 Durham County Council published a set of proposed modifications to the County Durham Minerals Local Plan.

In 1998 a public inquiry was held to hear objections to the Plan (which had been placed on deposit in March 1997). The Inspector's report from the public inquiry was eventually published in 1999. The County Council spent several months considering the 170 separate recommendations from the Inspector and decided to propose further modifications. Approximately 75% of the recommendations from the Inspector either involved no change or supported, in whole or in part, policy changes by the County Council. The County Council decided to recommend acceptance of the bulk of these recommendations - but there were areas where acceptance of the Inspector's recommendations was not thought to be straightforward.

One contentious area in the Inspector's report concerned coal and fireclay extraction. The Inspector had rejected the proposed approach towards opencast coalmining as set out in Policy M6 of the Plan - and recommended a combined policy approach towards coal and fireclay. In doing so, however, he recognised the constraints affecting the County, and that it is only likely to be possible to support a modest level of opencast coalmining in the future (well below the levels of output achieved in the recent past). However, since the Inspector's report was released the revised national policy towards opencast coalmining had been published in the Revised MPG3 - and the County Council considered that this must now be the most important advice to consider when formulating a suitable policy.
The County Council have suggested a policy closely based on the Revised MPG3. The suggested revised policy approach for opencast coal and fireclay is shown below:
Modification MD055 - revised Policy M6 and new Policy M6a
Policy M6:
"Within the exposed coalfield area there will be a presumption against proposals for the opencast mining of coal and/or fireclay unless:
a. they are environmentally acceptable, or can be made so by planning conditions or obligations; or
b. they provide local or community benefits which clearly outweigh the adverse impacts of the proposal. In assessing such benefits particular regard will be had to:
i. the contribution of the proposal towards the comprehensive reclamation of areas of derelict or contaminated land;
ii. the avoidance of sterilisation of mineral resources in advance of development which is either subject to a planning permission or allocated in an adopted development plan (in accordance with Policy M12);
iii. their contribution (or otherwise) to the maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth and employment;
iv. the need for supplies of fireclay to serve local brickworks.
All proposals should avoid the unnecessary sterilisation of other minerals, particularly fireclays and brickclays."
Policy M6a:
"The piecemeal working of opencast coal deposits will not be allowed."
It is worth noting that approximately 20% of the exposed coalfield in County Durham is now within the general extent of the North Durham Green Belt - whose main purpose is to keep land permanently open. Whilst national policy does not exclude mineral extraction in green belt areas, mineral extraction is subject to compliance with a number of tests (with stringent conditions being attached to the working and restoration of any sites).

The Council published advertisements in local newspapers asking anyone who has objections to the proposed modifications in the Plan to submit them by 3rd April 2000. Should no objections be received, the County Council have indicated that they will formally adopt the Plan. Further information from: Director of Economic Development and Planning, Durham County Council, County Hall, Durham DH1 5UF - Tel: 0191-386 4411