Local plan - minerals and waste

General Information

The Council is the Waste and Mineral Planning Authority. This means it is the Council's duty to undertake all planning matters relating to waste and mineral development. It is also a Waste Collection and Disposal Authority responsible for collecting and disposing of domestic and some commercial waste.

This part of the web site deals with planning matters.

Minerals In Herefordshire

Minerals and living resources are the twin foundations of civilisation - whatever is not harvested from the earth or its waters, must be dug from beneath it. At least 25 different minerals and 60 tonnes of sand and gravel go into the fabric of a house. 20 different minerals go into making a motor car, and about 250 million tonnes of aggregates are used in construction projects each year in the UK - about 4 tonnes per person per year. Current levels of food production cannot be maintained without mineral fertilisers and almost all the energy used in the UK is based on mineral fuels.

In the past minerals were dug where they were found. Today the Mineral and Waste Planning Authorities, like this Council, have to plan not only the sites needed but their progressive development to minimise the environmental damage caused and to ensure the restoration and beneficial after use of the sites involved. Specific legislation and government policy advice exists to guide mineral extraction.

Planning Policies

Government policy requires local authorities to ensure an adequate and regular supply of minerals to meet national estimates of the tonnages needed. In this county about a quarter of a million tonnes of sand and gravel and half a million tonnes of crushed rock are estimated to be needed per year. The county is also required to maintain a 'land bank' of at least seven years supply of sand and gravel and sufficient for a 'longer period' for crushed rock. The council's role is to set out criteria by which proposals will be assessed and monitored to ensure that the needs of local people and business can be met without unacceptable damage to the environment and to enable the beneficial after use of sites.

At present the Council has an adopted Minerals Local Plan which lists these criteria and identifies sufficient preferred sites for extraction to meet anticipated demand for minerals until 2004.

Policies for waste development are less specific but are also included in the County Structure Plan. Both Plans will ultimately be incorporated in the Council's Unitary Development Plan, which will make adequate provision for both minerals and waste sites up to and beyond 2011.

Quarrying in Herefordshire

The predominant underlying geology in Herefordshire is of sandstone or mudstone of the Devonian period. Besides the sandstone there is limestone in the Malvern/Ledbury range of hills, the Woolhope Dome, Shucknall Hill, and in the Aymestrey/Presteigne areas. Carboniferous limestone is found south west of Ross, igneous and metamorphic rock including granite in the Malvern Hills. Some of these sources are quarried now, all have been quarried to some extent in the past for a variety of uses. River and glacially derived sands, gravels and pebbles overlie the bedrock in the river valleys, and glacial sand, gravel and pebble deposits are found in numerous locations in the west and north of the county.

In Herefordshire sand and gravel for aggregates, limestone and sandstone for building stone are produced. In the past granite was quarried from the Malvern Hills. This quarrying has ceased and current policy is to oppose further granite extraction from the Malvern Hills. Clay was extensively dug for bricks in the past but no brick industries remain today.

Aggregate

Aggregate is rock that has been broken into small pieces, either by nature or by people. In 1988 a peak year, 186 million tonnes of aggregate derived from crushed rock and 134 million tonnes from naturally broken down rock i.e., sand and gravel, were used for aggregates.

In Herefordshire about a quarter of a million tonnes of sand and gravel is extracted annually and about half a million tonnes of crushed rock. This is about 5% of the aggregate used in the West Midlands region.

Aggregate is expensive to transport, the price of a lorry load of crushed rock will double after a 50 kilometre journey, hence the need to find local sources of sand and gravel for development.

Sand and gravel occur in the river valleys and from glacial deposits over the north and west of Hereford.

There are currently 10 permitted aggregate workings, not all of which are active. Another 20 sites have permissions that have expired. The main gravel pits are located at Lugg Bridge, Wellington and Shobdon.

Hard rock is also crushed for aggregate use. Two quarries are currently worked for crushed rock at Leinthall Earls and Perton. A large permission at Nash is currently mothballed.

Building Stone

In the past many buildings were made from very small local quarries often dug on the farm. There is considerable local demand for dimension; i.e. cut stone for the construction and repair of vernacular and historic buildings. Finding supplies of suitable stones is vital if Herefordshire's 'sense of place' is to be maintained. There are very few small quarries with planning permission for extraction in the entire country, but 12 of these are in Herefordshire.

Because of their current specialised nature and small-scale production, future sites for building stone quarries are not identified in the Local Plan, but policies encouraging their development, where environmentally suitable, are included in the Unitary Development Plan.

Geological Conservation

Although the earth is thousands of millions of years old, opportunities to study its history to rocks, minerals and landforms can disappear quickly due to development pressures and changes in land use. The protection of geological features is now a matter of international concern. In 1993 an international task force for Earth Heritage Conservation was established and the concept is now widely accepted and is endorsed in government policy.

In Britain the best, nationally important geological sites are designated SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) by English Nature. Other sites exist which may not be nationally important but are still regionally significant. These are designated RIGS (regionally important geological and geomorphological sites). Designation is based on the scientific, educational, historic or aesthetic importance of the site according to strict criteria.

Six sites have been proposed for designation of RIGS in this county so far:-

• Howle Hill Quarry
• Wye Valley meanders, Huntsman Hill and Coppett Hill, as viewed from Symonds Yat Rock
• Goodrich Castle
• Whitman's Hill Quarry, Storridge
• Dormington Landslip
• Bartestree Quarry

It is possible that about 60 sites could ultimately be proposed for Herefordshire.
The Council's Countryside Partnership Team is currently working with the local RIGS group to produce geological tourist trails around the county.

For information on the local RIGS group contact Peter Oliver, (01905) 855184 or e-mail him at RIGS@Worc.ac.uk. 

After Use Of Sites

The Council must ensure that sites are restored to a beneficial after use on completion. The sheer scale of mineral working and waste disposal sites means that the landscape can sometimes be significantly re-modeled. At present for example:

The Gravel Pit at Stretton Sugwas is in the process of being restored to a mixture of farmland, parkland with trees and a large lake. The site already hosts such a wide variety of birds, plants and insect life, some nationally rare species, that it may be of SSSI standard. The potential for some kind of future recreation or nature conservation use, as yet unspecified is therefore considerable.

The Gravel Pit at Wellington is being restored to a combination of arable farmland, a potential sailing lake, about 13 hectares (ha) in extent a nature conservation lake, approx. 4 ha in extent and two fishing lakes approx. 2.5 and 3.5 ha in extent. Two areas of naturally re-generated wet woodland will also be created and provision for parking and areas for archaeological protection have also been planned.

The Gravel Pit at Shobdon is designed to create a large lake for recreation and a small lake for nature conservation.

Hard rock quarries are more difficult to reclaim but Perton's is to be restored principally as a geological SSSI, with appropriate landscaping. Adjoining old quarries at Dormington will also be restored to forestry as part of the development.

Experimental planting is currently being undertaken along the faces at Leinthall Earls quarry to decide how it can best be restored.

Minerals Legislation

Minerals are defined in S.336 of The 1990 Town and Country Planning Act as including:-

"a minerals and substances in or under land of a king ordinarily worked for removal underground or surface working, except that it does not include peat cut for purposes other than sale"

There are some 28 Acts of Parliament and Statutory Regulations which directly refer to mineral planning issues.

Last Updated: 05 October 06,
Review Date: 20 September 2005