Scottish industry fills training gap for planning authorities

Aggregates companies participate in series of training events for local authority planning officers

THE aggregates industry in Scotland has recently completed a highly successful series of training events for local authority planning officers across the country. 
Last year, Mineral Products Association (Scotland) executive director John Sheridan and the Scottish Government’s Chief Planner, Jim Mackinnon, agreed that concerns over the lack of minerals knowledge in the planning profession could be overcome by the industry taking action to address the problem.

The Association volunteered to develop a programme in partnership with the Improvement Service, which runs a skills-development programme for local authority planners and elected members using funding from the Scottish Government.

A series of one-day events for planning officers on minerals planning, hosted by member companies, was arranged at four different working quarries across the country. The companies who offered their time and staff resources were: Tarmac, Daviot Quarry; CEMEX, Collessie Quarry; and Aggregate Industries’ Powmyre and Duntilland quarries.

In addition to looking at the legislative and policy context to minerals planning in Scotland, various operational issues ranging from markets to after-use were also considered, as were effective development plan policies, conditions and legal agreements.

The sessions were designed to give planning officers working in development management, development planning and enforcement the opportunity to learn more about mineral extraction and factors such as neighbour relations, mitigation, biodiversity, restoration and after-use. Effective local policies and good practice in terms of conditions and Section 75 agreements were also covered.

Stephen Cowan, Tarmac’s planning manager who hosted the first day, said: ‘I appreciate that minerals proposals are but one of many types of development that officers must deal with and although relatively infrequent they bring several technical aspects not encountered every day. I believe that these events will have helped provide real practical insight and experience.’ 

Glyn Jones, Aggregate Industries’ estates manager, added: ‘These events provided an excellent opportunity to showcase our operations and enabled planning officers to gain a more practical understanding of quarry operations and how potential impacts can be successfully mitigated.’

Looking back on the four days, John Sheridan observed: ‘This was a very worthwhile exercise that could well set the scene for more awareness events to other audiences. The industry showed that it was willing to face the issue of lack of knowledge and actually do something very positive about it.’