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Quarrying and Mining
Gloucestershire is important as a source of crushed rock, sand and gravel, dimension stone and roofing flags. With the prospect of major growth, demand for aggregates is likely to increase but a high proportion of the aggregate resources lies within Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty such as the Jurassic limestone of the Cotswolds and the Carboniferous limestone and various sandstones of the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. This led to the current Minerals Local Plan for Gloucestershire being adopted with a potential “shortfall” of 7 million tonnes of crushed rock due to environmental constraints; and to the adoption of a crushed rock “landbank” requirement of 7 years as against the 10 – 15 years adopted in most plans.
Sand and gravel production is concentrated in the Upper Thames valley where special settlement protection policies apply in the Cotswold Water Park which is the county’s only current Mineral Consultation Area (MCA), within which district planning authorities should consult the County Council on proposed development which could “sterilise” mineral deposits.
The National Planning Policy Framework notes the special case of small scale quarries to provide building and roofing stone, and also states that permission should not be given for the extraction of coal unless…environmentally acceptable … or if…national, local or community benefits…clearly outweigh the likely [environmental] impacts”. This should be helpful in challenging any future opencast coal proposals in the Forest of Dean.
Other environmental constraints which are locally significant to mineral working include effects on hydrology, archaeology, biodiversity and loss of high quality agricultural land. Generation of HGV traffic on unsuitable country roads can severely affect tranquillity as well as pose new safety hazards.
Gloucestershire County Council is preparing a new Minerals Local Plan for the period 2018 - 2032. A link to the consultation draft and to CPRE Gloucestershire's response to the consultation is below, together with a link to the branch policy on stone quarrying and extraction of other minerals.
CPRE Gloucestershire policy on stone quarrying and extraction of other minerals
Draft Minerals Local Plan for Gloucestershire 2018-2032 (Gloucestershire County Council)
Housing
There is a shortage of affordable housing in rural areas, People on low incomes cannot afford what the housing market demands. In rural areas average house prices are seven times the average rural household income.
Landscapes
This section places Gloucestershire’s landscapes in the context of National Character Areas, explains that much of the landscape is nationally recognised through AONB designation, and notes the importance of local landscape character assessment in the planning process and in relation to land management.
Landscapes
Gloucestershire’s landscape is outstanding by any measure, but different parts of the County have their own distinct character – the Cotswolds, the vale landscape, and the Forest of Dean. The challenge is to ensure that local distinctiveness is respected in planning policy, development and land management.
At a national scale the varied landscape of England has been mapped into a series of 159 National Character Areas (NCAs) – areas with a broadly similar landscape character. Gloucestershire’s landscape mainly falls within NCA 105, Forest of Dean and Lower Wye; NCA 106, Severn and Avon Vales; and NCA 107, Cotswolds – we are a county of three distinct parts and each part has its own very distinctive character.
Three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) have been designated within Gloucestershire in national recognition of their special landscape qualities. The County includes a substantial part of the Cotswolds AONB, designated in 1966 and extended in 1991, and the Wye Valley AONB, designated in 1971, together with a tiny part of the southern end of the Malvern Hills AONB, designated in 1959. The Forest of Dean was first England’s National Forest Park and there has long been an aspiration for its designation also as an AONB, as originally proposed in the report of the Hobhouse Committee in 1947. CPRE continues to campaign for the designation of a Forest of Dean AONB.
All landscapes matter. The finer grain of the landscape has been mapped in more local landscape character assessments prepared by the County Council and District Councils and for the AONBs. The National Character Area assessment and the more local character assessments are important in informing local plan policies and in determining development applications. The aims are to guide land management practices to retain and strengthen local distinctiveness across the County.
Our efforts are focussed on inputting into the preparation and review of local plans to ensure robust landscape policies, including criteria-based policies where appropriate which reflect local distinctiveness. We are working to support the Cotswolds Conservation Board and the Wye Valley and Malvern Hills AONB partnerships in looking after these special areas.
Waste planning and management
Waste planning is a Gloucestershire County Council responsibility. The Gloucestershire Waste Core Strategy (WCS) was adopted in 2012 and covers the period up to 2027. CPRE input to the various consultations on the Strategy and we were pleased with the outcome where many of our points were incorporated in the final version.
The WCS includes a range for the amount of municipal waste expected to be produced in Gloucestershire by 2028. As the volume of waste that will need to be handled has continued to decline since the WCS was adopted, it now looks as though the lower end of the range is more likely than the upper end. This is reinforced by the latest projections by the ONS that household sizes will not be getting smaller. Larger households produce less waste per capita. We will keep this in mind in assessing the need for waste treatment facilities and in our lobbying of the County Council on waste issues.
In the light of the above, CPRE was opposed to the Javelin Park incinerator. This major energy from waste plant in now under construction. Located near junction 12 of the M5 on the southern approaches to Gloucester and close to the Cotswolds AONB, we raised concerns about landscape impacts but we also believe that Gloucestershire could land up with an incinerator too large for the county’s needs and would be forced to bring in other counties’ waste to make the facility viable. We were pleased that the County Council’s planning committee accepted these arguments and refused a planning application for such a facility unanimously. However, the decision was successfully appealed, and a subsequent legal objection lodged by Stroud District Council was dismissed in the courts, clearing the way for construction to begin.
The Branch has produced a policy statement on waste planning and management.
Waste Planning and Management
Gloucestershire Branch has developed a policy statement to guide its advocacy on waste planning and management and to brief others on its views. The following is a summary of the main points.
Campaign history
CPRE is campaigning for designation of the Forest of Dean as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This note summarises the long history of campaigning for national recognition.
The area was recommended for national protection in the reports to Government after the second world war which led to the system of National Parks and AONBs. 232 square miles of the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley were identified as meriting protection.
1971. The Wye Valley was designated an AONB but the Forest of Dean was left out on the grounds that the Forest of Dean formed a distinct landscape separate from the Wye Valley and that designation was not necessary as the Forestry Commission had adequate powers for meeting amenity and recreation needs under the 1968 Countryside Act - but this completely disregarded the landscape merits of the non-afforested areas and the need to consider the area as a whole.
1972 – 1995. Many continued to argue that the Forest of Dean area should be similarly designated an AONB to recognise its national landscape significance and provide safeguards against inappropriate development.
1996. Matters came to a head when the draft Minerals Plan for Gloucestershire included parts of the Forest as potential quarrying areas and concerns were expressed about the possible return of opencast mining.
1997. During the general election campaign, the Labour Party stated it would “offer the Forest of Dean a new ‘custom-built’ status appropriate to its unique history and character, which matches up to the threats it faces while retaining the flexibility necessary to ensure a secure future for the local communities”
1998. The new Labour Government asked the Countryside Commission to make recommendations.
1999. A report for the Countryside Commission Forest of Dean - Review of Special Status confirmed that the Forest of Dean District was unique and fully met the criteria for AONB designation. It recommended “an enhanced AONB”, the enhancement to be by a programme to meet the social and economic needs of the area. Forest of Dean District Council gave their full support to the recommendation. By 1999 the Countryside Agency had replaced the Countryside Commission. In response to the threat of major new quarrying, the Agency advised Gloucestershire County Council to regard the Forest of Dean as if it were an AONB for the purpose of the county’s Minerals Local Plan Inquiry.
2000. A decision on designation was deferred in favour of a time limited Integrated Rural Development programme of small scale projects. That year the status of AONBs was enhanced by provisions in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act. Designation of the Forest of Dean area should now be able to provide all that the ‘custom built’ status promised by the Labour Party in 1997 could have achieved.
2003. A petition of 7000 signatures in support of a Forest of Dean AONB was handed to the Chairman of the Countryside Agency.
2005. The Minister wrote to the Agency saying “The question of AONB designation does not need to be linked to the outcome of the Integrated Rural Development programme so I feel that the possible designation of the Forest should now be considered without delay.”
2007. Forest of Dean District Council set up a Task Group of Councillors to look again at the advantages and disadvantages of AONB designation for its area. The Group consulted widely and reported favourably on designation.
2008. For the second time, Forest of Dean District Council gave their full support to AONB designation.
2012. Responsibility for designation now rests with Natural England. Natural England has been reviewing its strategy on designations and has developed strict criteria for considering boundary changes to National Parks and AONBs and any new designations. Its designation strategy was published in July. The Forest of Dean is on a long list of proposals for review.
2014. Natural England is evaluating the proposals on the long list. A decision on which proposals will be taken forward is anticipated at the end of the year.
AONB Status for the Forest of Dean
CPRE is campaigning for designation of the Forest of Dean as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The area is nationally renowned but has never been formally recognised through designation as a protected landscape. There is a long history of moves to secure AONB status.
Gloucester and Cheltenham Green Belt
The Gloucester and Cheltenham Green Belt plays a vital role in preventing the coalescence of Gloucester and Cheltenham but is under constant pressure for development.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has confirmed the Government’s commitment to retaining Green Belts and to strictly limiting any development within them. It says that the fundamental aim of Green Belt policy is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open; and that once established, Green Belt boundaries should only be altered in exceptional circumstances through the preparation or review of the Local Plan. Once defined, local planning authorities should plan positively to enhance the beneficial use of the Green Belt.
Development pressures on Gloucester and Cheltenham are such that urban extensions into the Green Belt are being proposed in the Joint Core Strategy for Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, the emerging planning blueprint for the area to 2031, also referred to as the JCS.
CPRE Gloucestershire has contributed at five key stages in the preparation of the JCS:
- An issues and questions consultation in 2010
- Consultation on 'Developing the preferred option', which concluded in February 2012
- Consultation on the draft Strategy at the end of 2013
- Consultation on the Pre-Submission draft in 2014
- At the independent examination of draft Strategy which began in May 2015 and is still continuing
In our consultation responses we have argued that:
• the general extent of the current Green Belt should be broadly retained
• consideration should be given to extension to the north of Bishop’s Cleeve to provide further containment to the Cheltenham urban area, and to the south of Gloucester to safeguard the important strategic gap between Gloucester and Stonehouse
• removing land from the Green Belt for development should only be contemplated where it is clear that this would provide the most sustainable solution for accommodating future development requirements
• the following Strategic Objective should be included in the Core Strategy - To promote the positive management of the Green Belt to enhance its contribution to the landscape, biodiversity and access.
Losing any green belt land should always be a last resort and exceptional circumstances have to be demonstrated. Reluctantly, we have concluded that some greenbelt release is justified as other development options to meet the housing needs of the area would be far more damaging.
CPRE Gloucestershire policy on the Cheltenham and Gloucester Green Belt
