Planning and Development

Hampshire Minerals Plan

The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA)  is currently reviewing its policy for minerals apportionment and is pressing the Government to significantly reduce the regional target for land-won sand and gravel to better reflect recent sales trends.  The County Council cannot progress work on the Hampshire Minerals Plan until the regional review is completed and that will take some time as further consultation and an examination in public is required before Government finally decides what the policy should say. The progress of the regional review will be updated here and further details are available on the SEERA website.

The Hampshire Minerals Plan is being prepared by the minerals and waste planning authorities. It is part of a series of Mineral and Waste Local Development Documents that will form the Hampshire Minerals and Waste Development Framework and will cover the period to 2020. The contents of the Hampshire Minerals Plan include the following:

  • Policies and plans for specific sites and locations for mineral development including:
       sand and gravel extraction,
       clay ‘areas of search’,
       rail depots and wharves for the importation of aggregate,
       sites for the manufacture of recycled and secondary aggregates
       landfill
  • Safeguarding areas around and including existing and proposed development.
  • Mineral Safeguarding Areas for future sand and gravel extraction.

Sand and gravel are essential components for the construction and repair of homes, schools, hospitals, commercial and manufacturing premises and roads.

Hampshire County Council and its partners are required by Government to identify land so that sufficient sand and gravel can be produced locally. It also has to identify locations for clay extraction, rail depots and wharves to import aggregate, facilities for the recycling of aggregates and areas suitable for landfill.

Sites that have been identified in the Plan are determined by the geology of Hampshire and only 18% of the area contains sand and gravel. Constraints such as nearby homes, accessibility and environmental designations limit this resource even further. It is also important that local sources are extracted so that sand and gravel is not needlessly transported long distances. The Council thinks that only a level of 1.82 mtpa is justified by sales trends and the impact a higher level of provision would have, and this is what the Plan provides for.

In support of the draft Hampshire Minerals Plan there are a number of Supporting Documents which you may wish to view.

The areas were put to the County Council’s Cabinet at a meeting on 23 June and were then debated at the Hampshire County Council meeting on 10 July. For more information, please see the Council Report and Decision. These areas were also placed before our partners Member's for further consideration.

Hampshire County Council believes that Hampshire does not need as much sand and gravel as currently required by Government - see the Leader of the Council's previous statement (on 10/04/08). SEERA (South East England Regional Assembly) consulted on the amount of minerals each authority is required to extract (Hampshire’s apportionment or allocation) and the Leader of the Council has written a response (07/08/08) to the South East England Regional Assembly's consultation to reduce Hampshire’s apportionment in line with Option D (Environmental).

In response to an earlier consultation by the Department for Communities & Local Government (DCLG) on The Draft Revised National and Regional Guidelines for Aggregates Provision in England: 2005-20, the Leader expressed his view in this response on 27 June 2008.