Exhibition
Monday 22nd January 2018
Green Lanes Primary School
4 – 8pm
CEMEX UK and Gascoyne Cecil would like to invite you to discuss our proposals for extracting minerals at Stanborough. We understand you may want to know more about our proposals and this will be a useful opportunity to explain our approach, have a discussion about what is actually involved and answer any questions you may have.
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has also spent the past few years preparing a Local Plan to determine how the borough will respond to change, accommodate a burgeoning population and facilitate a growing economy. Land north west of Hatfield has been earmarked as a potential mixed use development site since 2012, and sits in the Council’s Local Plan which is currently subject to Examination in Public.
Construction materials such as sand and gravel are vital to the economy and affect our everyday lives in the buildings around us, such as our homes, roads and hospitals. Hertfordshire County Council, as our Minerals Planning Authority, has a role in contributing towards meeting local and regional demands for these essential materials.
HCC’s draft plan proposes “land adjoining Coopers Green Lane” as a potential site for supplying sand and gravel to meet future needs.
If local development is to take place, national planning policy requires, wherever possible, for minerals to be extracted beforehand. CEMEX UK and Gascoyne Cecil have developed a strong working relationship over the past decade since CEMEX UK started working land at Symondshyde in 2006. Hatfield Quarry is a well-established CEMEX UK quarry extracting sand and gravel.
Why use a conveyor belt?
CEMEX UK have used a conveyor belt to take minerals from Symondshyde to Hatfield Quarry since 2006. This drastically reduces the number of lorry movements and therefore the impact such work might have on the local road network.
Lorry movements are limited to 250 / day at present along Coopers Green Lane. This will remain the same within the planning application proposal.
Why bother?
As national planning policy makes clear (see below), minerals such as the sand and gravel underneath much of Hertfordshire are crucial natural resources to support both our present way of life and sustainable economic growth. Minerals Planning Authorities, such as HCC, encourage landowners to extract minerals from their land before any building takes place which would prevent it from being brought out in the future.
National Planning Policy Framework
Para 142:
“Minerals are essential to support sustainable economic growth and our quality of life. It is therefore important that there is a sufficient supply of material to provide the infrastructure, buildings, energy and goods that the country needs. However, since minerals are a finite natural resource, and can only be worked where they are found, it is important to make best use of them to secure their long-term conservation.”
Hertfordshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan
Minerals Policy 5:
“Mineral extraction will be encouraged prior to other development taking place where any significant mineral resource would otherwise be sterilised, or where deposited land would be improved following restoration.”