Contact: Adrian Flavell, ext 6730 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions were made:

(i) That the Cabinet recommends to the County Council that
the Hampshire Minerals Plan:

(a) shall provide for 1.82 million tonnes per annum of sand and gravel;

(b) be approved for publication, consultation on its soundness and subsequent submission to the Secretary of State in accordance with Regulations 27-30 of The Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008; and

(c) be adopted by the County Council as an interim framework for the operation of planning control until this Plan is superseded.

(ii) That the County Council be further recommended to authorise the Director of Environment, in consultation with the Executive Member for Environment, to finalise the Hampshire Minerals Plan prior to submission and supporting documents, provided that these do not materially change the overall direction, shape and emphasis of the document, and do not raise any new issues.

(iii) That the Cabinet delegate authority to the Leader of the County Council to finalise the consultation responses to the following documents in line with proposals set out in this report:

(a) Government consultation on the `Draft Revised National and Regional Guidelines for Aggregates in England: 2005-2020'; and

(b) the South East England Regional Assembly consultation on the `Review of Sub-Regional Allocation of Land-Won Aggregates'.

2. Reason

2.1 The Hampshire Minerals Plan is an important component of the Hampshire Minerals and Waste Development Framework. It develops proposals to supply the minerals that Hampshire needs over the plan period to 2020, to support housing development and deliver other key infrastructure requirements to maintain its prosperity. It supports the Sustainable Community Strategy and Corporate Business Plan outcome 1.7.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected

3.1 The delivery of the Hampshire Minerals Plan is a statutory duty and is subject to specific regulations for its preparation. The following options were considered:

(i) Delaying the Plan

This was rejected as under new advice from Government the whole plan would need to be `rolled forward' to 2026. Early completion and adoption of the plan will ensure consideration of minerals development through a plan led system. Without this, the County Council is open to the risk of receiving individual applications which would need to be considered on a site by site basis. Proceeding with the plan enables sites to be tested on a systematic basis and tested against other sites. Many sites have been tested through this process and rejected to develop the best performing options, as set out in section 7.

(ii) Preparing the Plan on the basis of present guidelines to provide for 2.63 million tonnes per annum of sand and gravel

This was rejected on the basis that current production trends clearly do not sustain this. Planning on a higher level of production would identify sites that may not be realised for many years and cause undue uncertainty for the public. Moreover, the Sustainability Appraisal prepared as part of the Plan concludes that the only sustainable level of production over the whole Plan period is under two million tonnes per annum.

4. Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Decision Maker or Other Executive Member Consulted - None.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - None.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if Urgent - None.

Approved by: ..................................... Date: ...................................

Councillor T K Thornber CBE - Chairman

1578Decn/AF