Aggregate resource alternatives : future options for meeting aggregate minerals supply from outside National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The town and country planning system aims to make the best use of land for society as a whole, taking into account a wide range of issues which have a land use dimension; by sustaining the natural environment in which those activities take place; and by managing the resources on which they depend. As mineral resources, and particularly construction mineral resources (principally aggregates), are used to create the ‘goods’ that society ‘needs’ (e.g., housing and infrastructure development), the working of mineral resources is necessary.
Planning for, and the working of, aggregate minerals can be a contentious issue with regulators, industry and society, particularly where mineral extraction is undertaken or proposed in areas of high landscape / ecological value. Applications for the working of minerals in such areas come under particularly close scrutiny.
This work, funded through the Aggregates Levy, analysed data on the current distribution, sales and reserves of primary, land-won aggregates in England in respect of the contribution made from quarries that are inside National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It also assessed the future potential, and issues surrounding, possible alternative supply options for meeting the quantity of aggregates currently supplied from these designations. Such options include extraction from indigenous resources which lie outside of National Parks and AONBs, intra-UK imports from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, imports from outside the UK, marine dredging, secondary and recycled aggregates
