SEERA plays sand and gravel nimby with marine

The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) is lobbying government to reduce the land-won sand and gravel allocations for the region by a third and instead grant permissions for wider extraction from marine sources.

Despite some recent permissions for marine extraction taking over a decade, SEERA feels that the 121million tonnes allocation to marine in the recent Government consultation on aggregates targets up to 2020 falls short of the mark.

“This represents less than a 1% increase in the current guidelines figure of 120million tonnes…The figure proposed is therefore too low,” SEERA states in its response to the consultation.

The Government’s revised figures call for land won sand and gravel provided by the South East to number 195million tonnes, down from 212milion tonnes. But SEERA wants this cut by a third, which would take its allocation to 130milllion tonnes. It doesn't state how much of this should be taken up by marine operators.

Quarry firms in the area accused SEERA of nimbyism over its opportunist zeal in trying to offload tonnages of land won minerals onto marine extraction. Others accused the regional body of demonstrating a dangerous lack of joined-up thinking.

One quarry planner said: “Marine arrives at wharves in high volumes and then has to be transported out to the likes of Oxfordshire in 36tonne lorries. SEERA’s thinking will lumber the countryside with a lot more lorries.”

Another industry specialist pointed out that the government revision document has already reduce the overall tonnages in line with expectations. “The figures must have taken into account any fall in demand. That’s why they were revised,” he said.

SEERA’s lobbying comes at a time when it is consulting with local authorities in the South East on minerals allocations as part of its review of the Regional Spatial Strategy, which coincides with the Government revised cut in the area’s tonnages from 570 to 502million.

The consultation closes on 8 August and could bring about a change in the portion of minerals particular authorities allocate. And there are signs that some local authorities are pre-empting the results of the consultation process in a bid to palm off portions of minerals demands on to neighbouring authorities.

Hampshire, for example, held a Cabinet meeting in late June at which it agreed to allocate 1.82million tonnes of sand and gravel “…as an interim framework for the operation of planning control". Government believes it should allocate 2.63million tonnes.