Planning for non-agricultural after-uses
DAVID Jarvis Associates together with Professor Geoffrey Walton and Crawford Chartered Surveyors are embarking on a major research project, on behalf of the ODPM, that will explore ways in which aggregate quarries can be successfully planned and designed to ensure the integration of ‘built’ after-uses in appropriate quarry developments.
At present MPG7 guides quarry operators towards agriculture, forestry, nature conservation and landfilling of surface mineral workings as appropriate end uses for mineral excavations. While this may be the case for mineral sites in rural locations, other sites better located with respect to urban development or the transport network may offer opportunities for alternative forms of development that could help relieve the pressures on greenfield land. Examples of this include the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and the Eden Project in Cornwall.
As part of the project, the parties will look at how to encourage the industry, landowners and planners to consider the wider opportunities for development at an early stage so that flexibility can be built into quarry design to allow alternative forms of end use. This may include engineering the site so that the base of the quarry does not extend to the maximum mineral depth, thereby creating a larger flat base for development; leaving wider benches to provide practical platforms for development; and creating better positioned haul roads to give lesser gradients that would be more acceptable to domestic traffic in the longer term.
Such developments would obviously have financial implications – a site with potential for built after-use is likely to be of greater value than one with potential for agriculture only. However, in order to create a more beneficial profile there may be a requirement to increase the quarry footprint, subject to environmental considerations, or to sterilize some reserves. The financial implications of this decision-making process will also be considered as part of the project.
