The Central and Eastern Berkshire Minerals and Waste Plan

Bracknell Forest Council, Reading Borough Council, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham Borough Council (collectively referred to as the Central and Eastern Berkshire Authorities) are working in partnership to produce a Joint Minerals and Waste Plan which will guide minerals and waste decision making in the Plan area.

The Joint Minerals and Waste Plan will build upon the formerly adopted minerals and waste plans for the Berkshire area, eventually providing replacement policies based on up to date evidence of the current levels of provision for minerals and waste facilities in the Plan area.  Importantly, the Plan aims to establish the future levels of provision required to meet national and regional policy targets and objectives.  It will set out a new vision of how this will be achieved and provide details of strategic sites that we propose will deliver the vision.

Submission of the plan

The Central and Eastern Berkshire Authorities submitted the Joint Plan for independent examination on 25 February 2021.

The submission version of the plan, together with supporting documents and further information, can be viewed on the dedicated website for the plan.

This marked the beginning of an independent examination of the plan, held by a planning inspector.

A Programme Officer for the examination was appointed, who will act as the contact for any person who has an interest in the examination and as a liaison between the inspector, local planning authorities and representors. They are an independent officer of the examination and work on behalf of the inspector to organise and manage the administrative and procedural elements of the examination process.

Any queries people may have regarding the examination process or matters they wish to raise with the Inspector should be submitted via the Programme Officer.

The Programme Officer’s details may be found on the dedicated website for the plan.

Hearing sessions as part of the examination took place in September and October 2021.

Leading on from the hearings, a number of modifications have been identified that are needed to make the plan sound and legally compliant. These are known as ‘main modifications’. A further consultation on these Main Modifications will take place between 28th February and 11th April 2022. Please see the dedicated website for the plan for more details.

Previous stages

To date, several information gathering consultations have been achieved to inform the Plan, each of these form part of consultations undertaken as part of Regulation 18 (of the Local Planning (England) Regulations 2012):

  • In Summer 2017, an ‘Issues and Options’ Consultation was undertaken to gather technical information and confirm the evidence base;
  • During Summer / Autumn 2018, a ‘Draft Plan’ consultation set out the proposed approach for the Joint Minerals and Waste Plan
  • Due to a limited number of site options, a further ‘Call for Sites’ exercise was carried out.  This resulted in an additional site (Bray Quarry Extension) being proposed.  This was subject to consultation during the Summer of 2019
  • In February and March 2020, a Focussed Regulation 18 Consultation: Sand & Gravel Provision and Operator Performance document was subject to consultation, which consulted on the criteria for defining an ‘Area of Search’ for sand & gravel provision, two new sites and a new ‘operator past performance’ policy.
  • In September and October 2020, a Proposed Submission version of the plan, which was a full draft of the version of the plan that the authorities proposed to submit, was published for consultation.