Preferred Options consultation document
(1) 4. What happens next?
a) Preferred Options consultation (August/September 2019) The Preferred Options version of the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review (M&WLPR) 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 taken into account in the production of the Pre-Submission version of the M&WLPR.
c) Pre-Submission publication (May/June 2020) The Pre-Submission version of the M&WLPR 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 35 of the National Planning Policy Framework)
d) Submission (September 2020) 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 M&WLPR, 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.
e) ExaminationHearings (January 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 most of the 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.
f) The Planning Inspector's Report (January 2021) 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 NPPF (paragraph 35). 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.
g) Adoption (September 2021) 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 M&WLP will form part of the Development Plan for Norfolk.
h) Planning Applications Developers wanting to extract mineral from specific sites or land within a preferred area or area of search allocated in the M&WLP 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.