Essex County Council says:

Replacement Minerals Local Plan Review – 2025 to 2040: Public consultation from 6th February to 19th March 2024

This is to notify you that the next stage of the Replacement Minerals Local Plan Review will be undergoing a six-week public consultation (under Regulation 18 – Issues and Options), during which time we are inviting comments.

Please note that there are one or more sites in your parish/area that have been put forward for consideration for inclusion in the new Minerals Local Plan. For details and maps of these sites please see the Candidate Site Assessment document AND its accompanying appendices on our website at www.essex.gov.uk/minerals-review 

The current Essex Minerals Local Plan (MLP) was adopted in July 2014. The Plan provides planning policies for minerals development in Essex until 2029 and identifies future sites for mineral extraction.

Every five years the council is required to review the effectiveness of its MLP. Since 2020 the review of the Plan has undergone several phases of consultation and two call for sites resulting in 52 candidate sites being put forward for consideration for inclusion in a new Plan.

We are now proposing to extend the Plan to 2040 covering a 15-year period from 2025. New sites will be needed to meet the forecasted demand for aggregates (sand and gravel) over this period. Doing so will ensure that the Plan is robust and can help maintain a ‘steady and adequate’ supply of aggregates and meet the relevant ‘tests of soundness’ as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.

There are two main parts of this consultation on which you are invited to comment: the first are the revised Plan polices, their supporting text and the wider Plan evidence base in the draft Replacement Minerals Local Plan. The second is the site assessment report which contains the 52 candidate sites. The suitability of each has been assessed by independent consultants.

At this stage we have not identified what sites we want to see included in the final Plan. ‘Preferred Sites’ for allocation will be chosen once the comments received from this consultation have been fully considered.

Full details of this consultation, all related documents and how to respond can be found on the Essex County Council website at www.essex.gov.uk/minerals-review. Free internet access is available at Essex libraries. Responses to this consultation should be made by 5pm on 19 March 2024.