Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2023-2038 (web version)

1. Introduction

1.1 Norfolk County Council is the County Planning Authority responsible for minerals and waste planning and is therefore also the Minerals Planning Authority (MPA) and the Waste Planning Authority (WPA). Norfolk County Council, as MPA and WPA, has a statutory duty to produce and maintain an up-to-date Minerals and Waste Local Plan which covers the entire county of Norfolk and forms the basis for determining any relevant planning applications that are lodged with the authority. The provision of a steady and adequate supply of minerals and the management of waste constitute essential infrastructure to support the economic development of the county.

1.2 The Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan (NM&WLP), together with the Local Plans produced by the Norfolk's Local Planning Authorities and Neighbourhood Plans will form the Development Plan for Norfolk. Therefore, the NM&WLP is a consideration in the determination of planning applications lodged with Norfolk Local Planning Authorities, where there is the potential for those proposals to impact safeguarded minerals or waste management activities. Equally, when determining planning application for minerals and waste developments, Norfolk County Council will take into account all the relevant Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan policies from the Development Plan for Norfolk. The East Onshore and East Offshore Marine Plan is also relevant to planning decisions in coastal locations.

1.3 The national planning policy context for the Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan includes:

• National Planning Policy Framework (2023) and Planning Practice Guidance
• National Planning Policy for Waste (2014)
• Waste Management Plan for England (2021)
• Resources and Waste Strategy for England (2018)
• A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment (2018)
• National Policy Statements

Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan

1.4 The Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan (NM&WLP) covers the period to the end of 2038. When adopted, the NM&WLP will replace the following existing Minerals and Waste Development Plan Documents with one Local Plan:

• The Norfolk Core Strategy and Minerals and Waste Development Management Policies Development Plan Document (DPD) (the 'Core Strategy) (adopted in 2011).
• The Norfolk Waste Site Specific Allocations DPD (adopted in 2013).
• The Norfolk Minerals Site Specific Allocations DPD (adopted in 2013). The Minerals Site Specific Allocations DPD was subsequently amended by the adoption of the Single Issue Silica Sand Review in December 2017.

1.5 The NM&WLP includes a vision and strategic objectives for waste management and minerals development for the Plan period to 2038 and includes policies relevant to both minerals and waste management development covering the following issues: development management criteria, transport, climate change mitigation and adaption, The Brecks protected habitats and species, and agricultural soils.

1.6 The NM&WLP includes figures for the quantities of waste that need to be planned for over the Plan period to 2038. Arisings of Local Authority Collected Waste are forecast to increase in line with planned household growth in Norfolk's Local Plans. An annual growth rate of 1.35% has been used to forecast arisings of commercial and industrial waste which is based on economic growth forecasts for specific business sectors during the Plan period. Construction and demolition waste arisings are forecast to remain constant, in accordance with national planning guidance. Hazardous waste arisings are expected to remain stable throughout the Plan period, based on the most recent time series data for hazardous waste arisings in Norfolk, in accordance with national guidance.

1.7 An assessment of the existing waste management capacity in Norfolk concluded that sufficient capacity already exists to accommodate the forecast growth in waste arisings over the Plan period to 2038. Therefore, it is not considered necessary to allocate any specific sites for waste management facilities in the NM&WLP. However, planning applications for new waste management facilities are still expected to come forward during the Plan period, both to move waste management up the waste hierarchy and because waste management is a contract driven and competitive industry. Therefore, the NM&WLP contains criteria-based policies to determine those planning applications that come forward for waste management facilities.

1.8 The NM&WLP therefore includes a spatial strategy for new waste management facilities, a policy detailing the land uses considered to be potentially suitable for waste management facilities and criteria-based policies for the determination of planning applications for waste management facilities for the following types of waste: inert (construction, demolition and excavation waste), non-hazardous, hazardous waste and wastewater. It also includes criteria-based policies for the determination of planning applications for the following types of waste management facilities: inert waste recycling, waste transfer and treatment, composting, anaerobic digestion, household waste recycling centres, residual waste treatment, landfill and water recycling centres. Specific policies also cover the design of waste management facilities, landfill mining and safeguarding waste management facilities and water recycling centres.

1.9 The NM&WLP includes the quantities of sand and gravel, carstone and silica sand that need to be planned for during the period to 2038 in order to provide a steady and adequate supply of minerals. Based on the average sales data and other relevant local information, the NM&WLP proposes to plan for the extraction of 754,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of silica sand, 89,000 tpa of carstone extraction and 1,554,000tpa of sand and gravel extraction.

1.10 The NM&WLP contains a spatial strategy for minerals development. Policies relevant to the determination of applications for minerals development include: borrow pits for highway schemes, agricultural reservoirs, protection of core river valleys, cumulative impacts and phasing of workings, progressing working and restoration, aftercare, concrete batching and asphalt plants. Specific policies also cover safeguarding mineral resources, mineral sites and infrastructure.

1.11 Since the adoption of the Minerals Site Specific Allocations DPD, the allocated carstone site (MIN 06) has not yet received planning permission. The two allocated silica sand sites were granted planning permission in August 2021 and June 2023, but the permissions had not been implemented by December 2023. Therefore, the NM&WLP continues to include the one proposed carstone extraction site, which has an estimated resource of 1.416 million tonnes, and the two sites proposed for silica sand extraction, which have an estimated resource of 4.1 million tonnes.

1.12 In addition to the one Carstone extraction site and two silica sand extraction sites, the NM&WLP also contains 16 sites allocated for sand and gravel extraction. The allocated sand and gravel extraction sites have an estimated resource of 17.803 million tonnes. 8.987 million tonnes of the estimated resource are expected to be extracted within the Plan period with a further 7.245million tonnes already included in the existing landbank. The following sites allocated in the NM&WLP are already allocated in the Minerals Site Specific Allocations DPD: MIN 12 at Beetley, MIN 51 at Beetley, MIN 37 at Mayton Wood, MIN 64 at Horstead, MIN 96 at Spixworth, MIN 69 at Aylmerton and MIN 115 at North Walsham. Only the assessments of the allocated mineral extraction sites are included in this Publication NM&WLP. Landowner willingness for a site to be included in the NM&WLP has been provided for all of the allocated sites.

1.13 The following sites allocated in the NM&WLP had been granted planning permission by December 2023 for sand and gravel extraction: MIN37 at Mayton Wood, MIN64 at Horstead, MIN65 at Stanninghall, MIN207 at Edgefield, MIN206 at Tottenhill and part of MIN69 at Aylmerton. As of December 2023, planning applications had been submitted and were in the process of being determined for allocated sites MIN12 and MIN51/MIN13/MIN08 at Beetley and MIN25 at Haddiscoe.

1.14 Developers wanting to extract mineral from specific sites allocated in the NM&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.