In January 2018, as part of the Nottingham Mineral Plan 'call for sites', Ibstock Brick submitted proposals for the allocation of land north of Woodborough Lane. This would serve as a 20 - 25 year future clay supply to the Dorket Head Factory beyond the life of the existing quarry of circa 15 years.

The north of Woodborough Lane proposal was identified through a detailed sieving exercise relating to multiple sites locally, all of which had the potential to serve as future clay supply sites to Dorket Head, including those owned by Ibstock. North of Woodborough Lane was selected as the preferred site based on selection criteria, including the locality and mitigation of impacts. The north of Woodborough Lane site would have been a direct extension of the existing clay quarry south of Woodborough Lane, extending the working relationship with the mineral landlord of that site.

The mineral and surface owner relating to north of Woodborough Lane has reconsidered his position and has now requested that we cease promotion of that land in the Mineral Plan and do not seek to allocate it as currently proposed. Ibstock Brick will fully respect this decision and so will formally ask the County Planning Authority to recognise this in the minerals plan, the closing date for comments on which is the 28th September 2018.

Moving forward, Ibstock will review the opportunities identified for all of the other sites considered in its preparation for allocation in the Mineral Plan and may consider the promotion of one or more of those sites as an alternative site allocation. Allied with this, Ibstock place great emphasis on the 'criteria based approach' to site selection as referred in the Draft Mineral Plan and my simply seek to rely on this element of the policy for the future allocation of an appropriate site either in the development control process or as part of the mineral plan review.