Initial Consultation document

4. What happens next?

1. This Initial Consultation (June/July 2018) This document is the first public consultation on Norfolk's Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review. It contains a draft vision and strategic objectives for minerals development and waste management facilities in Norfolk. This document contains proposed wording for policies to be used when determining planning applications for minerals extraction and associated development and waste management facilities, and policy alternatives where this is considered appropriate. This document also contains an initial assessment of the sites and areas that have been proposed for mineral extraction in Norfolk over the Plan period to 2036. This document is being published for consultation and the comments received will be entered into Norfolk County Council's e-consultation database and will be taken into account in the production of the Preferred Options consultation document.
2. Preferred Options consultation (December 2018) The Preferred Options version of the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review will take into account the consultation responses received at the Initial consultation stage. It will contain a vision and strategic objectives for minerals development and waste management facilities in Norfolk. It will also contain proposed wording for policies to be used when determining planning applications for minerals extraction and associated development and waste management facilities. This document will also contain an assessment of the sites and areas that have been proposed for mineral extraction in Norfolk over the Plan period to 2036 and draft policy wording for those sites considered suitable to allocate. The document will be published for at least a six week consultation period and the comments received will be entered into Norfolk County Council's e-consultation database and will be taken into account in the production of the Pre-Submission version of the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review.
3. Pre-Submission publication (September 2019) The Pre-Submission version of the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review will be submitted to the Secretary of State and examined by a Planning Inspector. It will contain the policies detailing the requirements that planning applications for mineral extraction and associated development and waste management facilities will be determined against. The Pre-Submission document will also contain those specific sites and areas of search which are considered suitable for mineral extraction in Norfolk over the Plan period. The Pre-Submission document must be published for at least a six week period to enable representations to be made on whether or not the document is legally compliant and 'sound' (as explained in paragraph 182 of the National Planning Policy Framework)
4. Submission (December 2019) The representations received, in response to the publication of the Pre-submission document, will be entered into Norfolk County Council's e-consultation database and summarised. If there are no fundamental issues raised against the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review, such as those raised by statutory bodies, the Council will submit the plan together with all the representations and the summary to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public.
5. Examination (March 2020) The Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State to examine the plan will consider all the representations made against the plan. The Inspector will consider the majority of representations by way of written representations received during the formal period. In some more complex cases representations may need to be presented at the public examination. It should be noted that written representations are treated with equal importance to examination appearances.
6. The Planning Inspector's Report (July 2020) Following the examination the Planning Inspector will decide whether or not the plan is legally compliant and 'sound'. In this decision the Inspector will take into account the representations received and consider the plan against the 'tests of soundness' detailed in the National Planning Policy Framework (paragraph 182). If the Inspector does not find the plan 'sound' and legally compliant then the Council will have to undertake the preparation of the plan again. The Inspector can recommend main modifications to the plan to make it legally compliant and 'sound' if required. If the Inspector does find the plan 'sound' and legally compliant then the Council can decide to adopt the plan.
7. Adoption (October 2020) Once the Council has received the Inspector's report and implemented any modifications required to the Plan, the Council will then make the decision whether to adopt the Plan or not. On adoption, the Council will produce an adoption statement that will be advertised in the local press and the adopted Plan, sustainability appraisal and adoption statement will be made available for inspection. The adopted Minerals and Waste Local Plan will form part of the Development Plan for Norfolk.
8. Planning Applications Developers wanting to extract mineral from specific sites or land within a preferred area or area of search allocated in the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review will still need to apply for and be granted planning permission before mineral extraction can take place. Planning permissions are often granted subject to conditions to mitigate potential adverse impacts from site operations and permitted sites are monitored on a regular basis.