Essex Minerals Local Plan Review 2024

Overview

Essex Minerals Local Plan Review consultation

Re-opening of  Regulation 18 Replacement Minerals Local Plan Review consultation

It has been bought to our attention that Candidate Site A83 – Colemans Farm – Hole Farm (Braintree) was omitted from the List of Candidate Sites for potential sand and gravel extraction webpage which was originally presented for public consultation between 6th February and 9th April 2024.

Due to this omission, the Minerals Local Plan Review consultation has re-opened for eight weeks.

This Minerals Local Plan (MLP) Review consultation is in two parts. We are inviting comments on both the draft Replacement MLP document and its wider evidence base, and the interim results of the site assessment work for Site A83. The site assessment work in totality, all of which has previously been consulted upon, will guide the allocation of new mineral sites to support development in Essex to 2040.

Further details of the Minerals Local Plan Review to date, this consultation  and the document evidence base can be found on our planning webpages.

Replacement Minerals Local Plan 

This document has been split into individual policies, each with its own question. You can select which policy/part of the Plan you wish to respond to from the contents page by following the above link.

There is no requirement for you to answer every question and there is no minimum number of questions that need answering for your comments to be accepted.

The questions are supported by a Consultation Response Guidance Note which sets out a number of issues in relation to the majority of policies in the Plan. Whilst this Guidance Note is intended to guide the respondent to these issues, it is not intended to limit how you should reply but rather set out matter that we feel, it may be important to test. You may note other important issues when reading the draft policies and so your response to policies may touch on none, all, or some of the issues set out in the Guidance Note.

Candidate Sites Assessment document 

This document has been split into Introduction/Executive Summary, 52 candidate sites and then Next Steps. All sites have previously been consulted upon but the Council was notified that Site A83 was not included in the List of Candidate Sites for sand and gravel webpage. On the basis of this omission, Site A83 and/or an opportunity to respond to the consultation documents could have been overlooked. All supporting evidence documents that were previously consulted upon, including the emerging Minerals Local Plan, have therefore been made available for comment. Other sites can be commented on but only in relation to Site A83. Please note that since this document was published, Sites A55 – Sheepcotes Southern, A90 - Northern extension to Rayne and A96 - Southern extension to Rayne have been withdrawn by the site promoter.

Before submitting a comment relating to Site A83, we advise that you also read the methodology and more detailed assessment for that site within appendices B-I on our consultation webpages:

Appendix B - Landscape and Visual Sensitivity 

Appendix C - Biodiversity

Appendix D - Historic Buildings 

Appendix E - Archaeology

Appendix F - Flooding

Appendix G - Transport 

Appendix H – Access 

Appendix I - Public Rights of Way, Geo-Environmental, Hydrology, Hydrogeology & Drainage, Air Quality, Soil Quality, Services & Utilities, Health & Amenity, Green Belt, and Airport Safeguarding Zones

The following documents can be viewed in full via our planning webpages:

Replacement Minerals Local Plan

Assessment of candidate Sites Report

Consultation Response Guidance Note

Please note that the Portal is for comments relating to the Plan and the candidate sites. If you have any questions regarding the consultation, please email mandwpolicy@essex.gov.uk’

Consent

Please note we are unable to accept anonymous responses. It is a requirement of the Local Plan process that comments can only be deemed legitimate (‘‘duly made’’) if they are received in a written format with a name and address supplied. Comments made verbally or anonymously cannot be accepted.

All comments made to this consultation will be made available to view publicly on this portal, including those submitted via letter and email. Information will be published in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ECC’s own privacy notice.