Inspector's Report - Statement of Community Involvement

The Inspector’s report on the Nottinghamshire County Council’s Minerals and Waste Development Framework Statement of Community Involvement has been published and is available on the County Council’s website - environment/planningmatters/sci.htm.

The Statement of Community Involvement sets out the ways in which the County Council will consult over Development Plans and planning applications in the future.  Very few organisations submitted comments on this document during its consultation process over the past two years and only three attended the Examination in Public in October to make oral representations.

BJRA was not informed about the first stage of consultation in February 2005 so made no comment at this point.  At the second stage of consultation in November 2005, we made 18 comments, 9 supporting particular issues and 9 setting out objections.  This resulted in some changes to the document prepared by the County Council in the form of additional paragraphs setting out the role of local community and residents’ organisations and changes to the list of consultees.  At the third stage of consultation in May 2006 we submitted four representations, and we were one of the three organisations that attended the public examination in October to make oral representations on two of these points.

In our four remaining representations we aimed to
(1) Get impacts on residents included on the list of key issues to be considered when evaluating policy options and sites being considered for development.  The list proposed by the Council included “future demand for minerals, level of protection given to wildlife, cultural heritage and landscape…” but did not mention residents.
The Inspector’s report accepts the minor amendment proposed by the Council after our representation which now reads “how noise, dust and other pollution issues affect local residents and how they are addressed” but ignores the more significant issues we raised about the potential impact of developments such as mineral workings on health (dust from mineral workings, odour and dust from waste disposal) and on homes (dewatering and flooding).  Our suggestion that a more holistic approach be taken to the impact on local residents was not mentioned in the Inspector’s report.
(2) Get a greater requirement for the Officers to consult local communities directly at various stages of plan and planning in the interests of benefiting from local and up-to-date knowledge.  This was not mentioned in the Inspector’s report.
 (3) Get the Council’s proposals for near neighbour consultation on plan and planning proposals increased from their suggestions of 100 metres for urban areas and 250 metres for rural areas.  BJRA and the community groups from Ashfield area who were present at the Examination in Public argued the case for a considerably increased distance.  We pointed to the Government’s evidence that dust can have significant impacts on health more than 1 km from a site and that dewatering can impact for several kilometres from major gravel mining sites.  Under these circumstances, residents who are likely to be individually affected by such developments should have a right to be informed and consulted about them.  However the Inspector’s report makes no mention of this issue that was discussed at length at the Examination and no changes are proposed.