URGENT TODAY IS THE LAST CHANCE TO COMMENT ABOUT PEAK CLUSTER - PEAK DISTRICT LOCAL PLAN
URGENT – TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO COMMENT ON THE PEAK DISTRICT NATIONAL PARK’S (PDNPA) LOCAL PLAN – THIS IS RELEVENT TO PEAK CLUSTER PARTICULARLY SECTION 12 “MINERALS AND WASTE”
PLEASE COMMENT – GUIDANCE BELOW – it takes just a few minutes
Hope Cement Works operated by Breedon Quarries is part of the Peak Cluster Project and the only cement quarry within the National Park Boundary. It has limestone reserves to sustain it until 2036.
An application for an extension to the limestone quarry in order sustain production rates until 2042 and release a further 13 million tonnes is currently under consideration.
Breedon have previously signed a Section 106 legal agreement committing to the cessation of mineral extraction and cement manufacture at the site by 2042 and the site will enter its “restoration phase”. As such an overarching theme for potential redevelopment of this Brownfield Land is included as part of the PDNPA’s Local Plan.
However, the Local Plan makes no provision for addressing the Peak Cluster Pipeline / CCS: an expensive, environmentally damaging, disruptive and risky project that would be needed only to extend the quarry’s life for a short period, until 2042.
PLEASE TAKE JUST A FEW MINUTES TO ADD YOUR COMMENTS.
Click on the following link:
Go to sect 12 “Minerals and Waste".
Click “Add Comment”
Add your personal details
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Answer the questions as follows:
1. To which document does this representation relate?
Type: “The Plan”
2. To which Policy, section, paragraph or map reference does this representation relate? Please state.
Type “12 Minerals and Waste”
3i. Do you consider the Local Plan is Legally Compliant?
Answer: No
3ii. Do you consider the Plan to be sound?
Answer: No
4. Please give details of why you consider the Local Plan is not legally compliant or is unsound. Please be as precise as possible. If you wish to support the legal compliance or soundness of the Local Plan please also use this box to set out your comments.
Example Answer: (please use your own wording if possible)
‘I consider the Local Plan to be unsound because it does not adequately address the foreseeable environmental, landscape, ecological, safety and cumulative impacts associated with Carbon Capture and Storage infrastructure affecting the Peak District National Park.
The Authority has already recognised that CCS proposals, specifically including the Peak Cluster project, may affect the National Park during the lifetime of this Plan. It has also acknowledged that, although such nationally significant infrastructure would be determined nationally, the National Park Authority would be a statutory consultee.
This makes the potential effects of CCS infrastructure a foreseeable strategic planning issue rather than a hypothetical future consideration.
The Plan should therefore provide a clear and robust policy framework against which the Authority can assess and respond to such proposals. This should include consideration of landscape and visual impacts, biodiversity and protected habitats, cumulative infrastructure impacts, construction disturbance, climate implications, community impacts and the special purposes for which the National Park is designated.
The absence of sufficiently explicit policy safeguards risks leaving the Authority without an adequate Local Plan basis from which to respond to major CCS infrastructure proposals during the Plan period.
I therefore consider that the Plan has not been demonstrated to be positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with the protection afforded to the National Park.”
5. Please set out the modification(s) you consider necessary to make the Local Plan legally compliant and sound, in respect of any legal compliance or soundness matters you have identified at 4 above. You will need to say why each modification will make the Local Plan legally compliant or sound. It will be helpful if you are able to put forward your suggested revised wording of any policy or text. Please be as precise as possible.
Suggested answer (please use your own wording if possible)
“The Local Plan should be modified to include a specific policy addressing Carbon Capture and Storage and associated infrastructure where it affects, crosses or has the potential to adversely affect the National Park.
The policy should require robust evidence demonstrating the need for the development, reasonable alternatives, environmental and ecological impacts, landscape and visual impacts, cumulative effects, construction impacts, safety and emergency-planning implications, and effects upon communities and the statutory purposes of the National Park.
The policy should also require applicants to demonstrate that less damaging alternatives have been properly assessed and that any claimed public benefits clearly justify unavoidable harm to the National Park.
Where insufficient evidence is available to demonstrate that significant adverse effects can be avoided or satisfactorily mitigated, the Authority should not support the proposal.”
6. If your representation is seeking a modification to the plan, do you consider it necessary to participate in examination hearing session(s)?
Answer yes or no depending on whether or not you wish to take part in the examination hearings.
Answer Q7 if you responded yes to Q6
You do not need to answer q8
Click “Save”
Once you have added all comments, click the "Submit" button.
Thank you for your support