Northumberland & Newcastle Society

Draft Minerals & Waste Development Framework

Eric Lee keeps us up to date

This document, issued in June 2007, identifies areas of constraint where applications for opencast coal operations are likely to meet with greater or lesser environmental objections.

The categorising of areas in this way is a requirement under the Government's Mineral Planning Guidelines MPG3, presumably with the intention of indicating to opencast operators where their applications for new sites stood the greatest likelihood of success and thus reduce the number of abortive planning applications. Requests for the total deletion of constraint areas came from the opencast operators (who think they should be able to submit planning applications wherever they choose) and also from Durham County Council (who thought that the small number of potentially acceptable areas identified in Northumberland would lead to an increase in the demand for sites in Durham County).

However, the Draft Framework has already been seriously undermined by the outcome of a recent public inquiry. This was an appeal against the refusal by Northumberland County Council to approve the working of a large site at Shotton, near Blagdon Hall and adjacent to Cramlington. The appellant Banks Group argued that, as coal from the site would be used to supply Alcan’s power station near Lynemouth, permission should be granted, as a local source of supply was preferable.

In broad terms, the main reasons for the County Council's refusal and the Inspector's comments (in italics) were:

  1. The existing Development Plan (due for replacement in 2006) indicated that the site was in an area of opencast restraint. (The Plan contains contradictory policies and policies should be kept under review.)
  2. The site is in a Green Belt. (Only a moderate effect on the landscape during the period of operation.)
  3. The site would be a deterrent to prospective pharmaceutical companies that they hoped to attract to the area and be detrimental to Cramlington. (Effect on future pharmaceutical industrial development was a 'matter of perception' and completion of the site in 8 years should ‘be a source of comfort’. Neither Bellway Housing nor One North East had expressed significant concern over the effect of the site upon their intended developments in the area.)

The Inspector at the Shotton Inquiry felt that the benefits of supplying Shotton's coal to a local user, plus other potential benefits from the site's development, outweighed the various planning objections and environmental impacts. The Secretary of State accepted the Inspector's recommendation that the Banks Group's appeal should be allowed and that the site should be given planning approval. Subsequently, Northumberland County Council decided not to submit a legal challenge against the decision to the High Court.

The outcome of the Shotton Inquiry has thrown the Northumberland Draft Minerals Plan into disarray and it is now expected that a revised plan will be issued for consultation during Autumn 2008, with potential objections being heard by an Inspector in 2009. In the meantime the current policy vacuum is open to exploitation by opencast companies.

The opencast companies have for some time been lobbying for changes in the MP3 guidelines which would allow an expansion of opencast coal output and the Shotton decision could indicate that the Government is not unsympathetic to their views. This could have grave implications for the future wellbeing of Northumberland.

City and County
February 2008