Mineral and Landfill Waste Permissions

I have today issued a consultation document, Mineral Planning Authority Monitoring of Mineral and Landfill Permissions. This seeks comments on the proposed scope and content of a new fee regime in England for the monitoring and enforcement of minerals and landfill waste permissions by mineral and waste planning authorities, with a view to preparing regulations bringing a regime into operation on 6 April 2006. The 1998 comprehensive spending review included a commitment to empower mineral and waste planning authorities to recover the costs of monitoring and enforcing planning conditions for minerals and landfill sites. The commitment acknowledged that the fees for applications for permission for mineral working and landfill do not cover the necessary long-term monitoring and enforcement commitment for these land uses, which is not required for other types of development. For minerals in particular, given the essentially physical processes involved, the sometimes technical and complex planning conditions are the primary form of environmental regulation during the process of implementing permissions, which can extend over very long periods. They are also important, alongside the pollution control regime, at landfills. The widening of the scope of local authorities' powers to charge fees in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 now enables us to move ahead on this long standing commitment. Initial research in 2000, followed by consultation in autumn 2001, secured a good deal of agreement on the scope and content of a fees regime but left questions about the validity of the estimated costs to authorities of monitoring. In 2004, further research validated authorities' costs and made various recommendations about the form of a regime. We believe that we should now re-consult on the proposed regime in view of the time which has elapsed since the first consultation in 2001, because of the delay in securing enabling powers in primary legislation. Re-consultation provides an opportunity to report back to stakeholders on the comments received then, to report the findings of the further research in 2004, and to propose a regime which takes account of all the research and the earlier consultation comments. We are proposing that fees will be charged for the monitoring of all mineral extraction sites, all landfill sites and all other waste activities located on a mineral extraction and/or landfill site which are an integral part of the operation of the site. We propose a regime based initially on an annual schedule of visits, ultimately determined by the authority and a standard fee per site visit which would be set and applied nationally. The consultation document estimates that the total amount of fees which might be charged under the proposed regime is £2.7 million per annum, based on a best practice approach to monitoring. We believe that this additional revenue is necessary to ensure that mineral and waste planning authorities are adequately funded for this important long-term environmental protection work, given the potential impacts on amenity of mineral extraction and landfill. Copies of the consultation document have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The document is also available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website at www.odpm.gov.uk/. The consultation period ends on 1 September 2005.