Minerals and Waste Planning

• Policy Advice - Minerals and waste issues including good practice and impact of emerging strategies on rural areas.
• Adhoc Responses - Defra's aim is sustainable development, which includes the sustainable use of natural resources, economic prosperity and a countryside for all to enjoy. These are all issues that may be affected by quarrying.
• Government land use policy includes the protection of Best and Most Versatile ("BMV") agricultural land (Agricultural Land Classification Grades 1, 2 and subgrade 3a) and is one aspect of Defra's interests that is secured through the land use planning system. Related to this is our work concerning the restoration of minerals sites to an appropriate standard, and the sustainable use or conservation of soils.
• The NLGMT works on behalf of Defra with minerals and waste planning authorities in framing effective restoration and aftercare conditions for individual planning permissions. We also attend aftercare meetings on restored sites to ensure that the land is farmed in a way that will promote its return to a condition where it can be managed in the same way as undisturbed land.
• Our involvement with mineral sites brings together a number of separate issues under the broad umbrella of "sustainable development". We have an effective means of helping to maintain the amount of BMV land available to the farming industry with benefits in terms of sustainable agriculture, since BMV land typically requires less inputs than poorer quality land. The process of working a site to agreed conditions helps deliver soil conservation strategies. And the considerable biodiversity contained within soils is conserved by careful handling and storage techniques.
• Training - Delivering training programmes to planners and partner organisations.
• Further Information
  • Most of the land used for minerals extraction in England is in agricultural use prior to working and much of this is of high quality, which planning policy seeks to protect from long term impairment. Against a background of variable restoration quality, MAFF commissioned Land Research Associates in 1994 to undertake a 5 year project to evaluate the causes of success and failure and determine whether existing practices and planning conditions adequately safeguard the best and most versatile agricultural land. Evaluation of mineral sites restored to agriculture
  • In April 2000, MAFF published a Good practice guide for handling soils to provide the minerals industry with detailed guidance within one document. The aim of the guidance is to contribute to the ongoing improvement in restoration standards and the sustainability of minerals and waste development. The guide was prepared on behalf of MAFF by Humphrey Rowell Associates
  • In 1999 the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) adopted a more strategic role in relation to mineral and waste land use planning. After discussions with the key stakeholders, MAFF commissioned the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency (FRCA) to write what has become Defra guidance for successful reclamation of mineral and waste sites. This guidance is to help both mineral planning authorities and mineral operators to achieve the desired outcomes in the context of the more strategic input from Defra’s Rural Development Service (RDS). The guidance is to promote better understanding of the agricultural issues that affect the restoration of mineral and waste sites where the long-term agricultural potential of the land is to be preserved. It provides a working tool for the industry to assess and balance the agricultural issues relating to mineral and waste proposals, by focusing on the agricultural considerations and the key issue of sustainability.
  • As compaction is a common limitation of restored soil profiles MAFF funded a 5 year research programme in 1994 to evaluate the effectiveness of subsoiling treatments, to develop a field procedure for checking on soil disturbance and to provide technical guidance on subsoiler selection and practice. The research was carried out by Cranfield University and the results should help to improve standards of restoration and contribute to Defra's aim of sustainable development. The report Effectiveness of subsoiling treatments on soil structure development on mineral sites during the five year aftercare period (PDF, 532KB) has now been published in Adobe Acrobat pdf format.
  • An article based on this research appeared in the March 2003 edition of Mineral Planning magazine: Breaking restored ground - ripping really works! (PDF, 568KB)
  • Codes of Good Agricultural Practice (PDF)