Comment

Representation ID: 2169

Received: 14/07/2021

Respondent: Norfolk County Council - Minerals and Waste Team

Currently, the reasoned justification for the sites does not include reference to mineral resource safeguarding. We would like to reiterate from our previous comments that the need for mineral resource safeguarding to be addressed needs to be included within the requirements of the respective site’s allocation policy.

SN0218-Land West of Earsham: our previous response highlighted that this site was within 250m of both an active mineral extraction site, and a proposed mineral extraction allocation in the Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review. These areas were also the subject of a planning application for mineral extraction. On 9 November 2020, application FUL/2019/0062 was approved for mineral extraction on three areas off Hall Road & Pheasants Walk, to the north of the A146. It is expected that the permission will be implemented in Autumn 2021. The site assessment and reasoned justification should be amended to include reference to the permitted mineral extraction areas to the north.

For this site which we have identified as being within the Consultation Area of the permitted mineral extraction facilities, the final assessment of whether the proposed housing allocations would have any impact on the mineral extraction operations is dependent on details which would be contained within any future planning application.

The location of the potential Earsham housing allocation is separated from the permitted mineral extraction sites by the A143, and landscaping and screening measures on the mineral site. Therefore, in principle, it is unlikely that there would be unacceptable amenity impacts compared with the background situation. However, in order to confirm this, consultation with the Mineral Planning Authority should take place as part of the planning application process, once the details of layout are known, as detailed in Mineral and Waste Core Strategy Policy CS16. This need for consultation should be contained in the site allocation policy.