Safeguarding Mineral Resources
13.11 The Council acknowledges the national importance of, and demand for, building stone and aggregates that have to be met from quarrying and other workings (see paragraph 13.8 above) as well as the need to safeguard precious mineral resources for the future. As at December 2001, in Calderdale there were 36 active mineral working sites (see List of Mineral Working Sites Table 13.1 below). During the latter part of the Plan period, however, the minerals extraction industry may require new working areas. Therefore, workable resources will be safeguarded against unnecessary sterilisation by other forms of development. ‘Areas of Search’ based on the location of the Lower Coal Measures and Millstone Grit series mineral resources have been identified on the Proposals Map for possible future mineral working. Not all proposals within 'Areas of Search' will be appropriate for mineral extraction either for economic and/or environmental reasons. In determining whether mineral working would be appropriate, consideration will be given to the scale of the operation, its potential for impacting on adjacent uses, the nature of the mineral deposit and the physical limitations of the site. However, it is likely that within these areas there will be sites that are appropriate, and where planning permissions could be granted to meet any shortfall in supply or that could otherwise not be met from existing workings, or from bringing forward extensions to existing workings. The presence of any proven mineral resources, including energy minerals, will normally be regarded as a material consideration constraining other forms of development, but it is necessary to place a caveat against any presumption that the extraction of the safeguarded mineral will automatically be accepted. Hence the following Policy will apply:-
Policy M 4
Safeguarding Mineral Resources
Within ‘Areas of Search’ shown on the Proposals Map mineral resources will be safeguarded. Viable mineral resources will be protected from sterilisation by surface development. Any such proposals should make provision to ensure that the mineral is extracted so far as is environmentally and economically practicable before the surface development commences. Elsewhere, wherever proven mineral resources for surface extraction are found, their presence will be regarded as a material consideration in determining development proposals affecting those resources and their extraction.The identification of mineral resources will, in itself, not necessarily create a presumption that proposals for mineral extraction will be acceptable.
13.12 The following active mineral working sites with permitted reserves which are likely to continue to be operated during part or all of the Plan period are shown on the Proposals Map:-
| i) Sandstone/Gritstone Workings |
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ii) Clay Workings |
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