Minerals Local Plan Issues and Options consultation

Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan, Issues and Options Consultation East Leake Parish Council Response, January 2018

The East Leake Parish Council wish to express concerns in respect to the council's new Minerals Local Plan and make comments in respect of some aspects of mineral extraction that are already in the public domain.

1) Extension of East Leake Quarry towards Rempstone.

The extraction of Sand and Gravel from East Leake Quarry has been going on for a number of years and as the local Parish Council we have had an effective communication arrangement with the local management. The quarry is now going to move the extraction area towards Rempstone which makes sense in that it extends the life of the quarry and makes use of the existing plant on the site. However there are local concerns that do not seem to be taken into account. These are:

1a) The existing quarry working has identified several Saxon Burials in the area that has been quarried - these at the time were something of a surprise, but perhaps it should not have been as the Saxon Wipentake based on Court Hill on the edge of East Leake Golf Course was responsible for the name "Rushcliffe" which is that of our local Borough Council.

1b) The very old maps show a Roman track from the Fosse Way to the River Soar. This Roman Route passes through the proposed extension of the Quarry and the existing quarry in the form of a footpath, and can be traced to the Soar in the Kingston area. Evidence of the Roman use of this was verified when some Roman artefacts were found during excavation of the minerals in the existing quarry.

1c) Whilst the company operating the quarry are well briefed with respect to the likelihood of similar findings as they move eastwards towards Rempstone, there does not appear to be any recognition of the importance of this site as a likely source of ancient artefacts being found and perhaps damaged by the extraction process, neither does there appear to be any concern for the line of the public footpath that historically followed the Roman track but has not been required to be re-instated to the original line as part of the site restoration.

1d) The existing quarry site has, this last year, been getting a lot of publicity due to the migrating "Bee-Eater'' which was widely reported in the local and national press. Whilst this was very exciting for Bird Watchers, there was local concern that, whilst a local famer provided a field for parking, this involved the public visiting the area to cross over the busy A6006 as there is no public parking area in or near the existing quarry site to enable the public with their binoculars to have reasonable access to view the wild-life that has taken up residence as the quarry workings are restored to become a wild-life 'haven' in the area. It seems as though the restoration plan for the site is not maximizing for the public the full benefit of the "after life" of the quarry, which is an opportunity missed to encourage people to have long-term benefit from the mineral extraction.

2) Mineral extraction by mining:

2a) The largest employer in East Leake is British Gypsum (Saint Gobain) which is famous for it's Plasterboard and 'Bag Plaster' that is vital to the building industry.

2b) For a number of years the Plasterboard has made use of De-Sulpher Gypsum which is a by-product of using Limestone filtration on chimney gases at Coal fired Power Stations. The nearest local supply is from Ratcliffe Power Station, with additional material being brought by rail from other Coal fired Power stations and other British Gypsum factories outside Nottinghamshire making use of De-Sulpher Gypsum from other power stations. However, the government has said that the Coal Fired power stations need to be closed down as part of the 'Global Warming' initiative, and H.M.G. have said all U.K. coal fired stations will be closed by 2025 giving a maximum seven year life to the facilities generating De-Sulpher Gypsum.

2c) This decision has a major impact on the Plasterboard manufacturing industry. The response of the Plasterboard manufacturers is to make more use of mined Gypsum. British Gypsum has already had permission to extend the East Leake Gypsum mine to meet the needs of the building industry, but the demand is bound to increase as 2025 approaches unless a suitable alternative to De-Sulpher Gypsum can be found.

2d) The Parish Council has serious concerns as to the approach of Nottinghamshire C.C. to address the situation and the knock-on effect in the East Leake Area in terms of both Employment and Business Rates. It has recently been announced that our County Council has not been selected as one of the 10 pilot areas to take part in the government scheme to change the way Business rates are retained by the local area with them saying by 2021 (i.e. 4 years before the 2025 deadline for coal fired power stations to shut down) 75% of business rates will be retained locally to replace government grants. This may have a significant impact on the local Council Tax for East Leake residents as

Ratcliffe Power Station and British Gypsum are the top two companies in the amount of Business Rates they pay in the Borough of Rushcliffe, and with the power station closing in its present form and British Gypsum having to accommodate a large reduction in the De-Sulpher raw material the tax income would seem to be totally unpredictable. The County Council does not seem to have a contingency plan as to how we are to overcome the potential loss of jobs in the area and an uncertainty as to how much government funding will be available in the post 20-21 arrangement to support the local community and the impact on Council tax.

2e) The Parish Council is concerned about the impact of potential Gypsum mining on the area which has suffered major housing development in recent years, and especially in the recent Rushcliffe allocation of land for housing. The policy for Gypsum mining is that houses should not be built above a mined area as the Gypsum can become unstable as has been demonstrated locally by, for example, the collapse of an old mine below the west Leake hills that collapsed leaving a pond that is said to be 20ft deep. The Parish Council would like to have the plans for both existing and potential new mining in the area put in the public domain so that the danger of housing being built over a potentially unstable mine can be identified early in the housing land application. A useful 20 year projection of potential mining area would back up the concern that we are getting excessive amounts of housing and increasing the risk that our local employer (British Gypsum) do not have the access to enough raw material to give long term protection to the business and the employment it generates. The present arrangement is likely to lead to increasing mileage to work for East Leake residents and in supplying the raw materials for our largest local business, impacting on the road network in the area and potentially creating an impact that could match the community issues when a major coal-field closes.

Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan, Issues and Options Consultation East Leake Parish Council Response, January 2018

The East Leake Parish Council wish to express concerns in respect to the council's new Minerals Local Plan and make comments in respect of some aspects of mineral extraction that are already in the public domain.

1) Extension of East Leake Quarry towards Rempstone.

The extraction of Sand and Gravel from East Leake Quarry has been going on for a number of years and as the local Parish Council we have had an effective communication arrangement with the local management. The quarry is now going to move the extraction area towards Rempstone which makes sense in that it extends the life of the quarry and makes use of the existing plant on the site. However there are local concerns that do not seem to be taken into account. These are:

1a) The existing quarry working has identified several Saxon Burials in the area that has been quarried - these at the time were something of a surprise, but perhaps it should not have been as the Saxon Wipentake based on Court Hill on the edge of East Leake Golf Course was responsible for the name "Rushcliffe" which is that of our local Borough Council.

1b) The very old maps show a Roman track from the Fosse Way to the River Soar. This Roman Route passes through the proposed extension of the Quarry and the existing quarry in the form of a footpath, and can be traced to the Soar in the Kingston area. Evidence of the Roman use of this was verified when some Roman artefacts were found during excavation of the minerals in the existing quarry.

1c) Whilst the company operating the quarry are well briefed with respect to the likelihood of similar findings as they move eastwards towards Rempstone, there does not appear to be any recognition of the importance of this site as a likely source of ancient artefacts being found and perhaps damaged by the extraction process, neither does there appear to be any concern for the line of the public footpath that historically followed the Roman track but has not been required to be re-instated to the original line as part of the site restoration.

1d) The existing quarry site has, this last year, been getting a lot of publicity due to the migrating "Bee-Eater'' which was widely reported in the local and national press. Whilst this was very exciting for Bird Watchers, there was local concern that, whilst a local famer provided a field for parking, this involved the public visiting the area to cross over the busy A6006 as there is no public parking area in or near the existing quarry site to enable the public with their binoculars to have reasonable access to view the wild-life that has taken up residence as the quarry workings are restored to become a wild-life 'haven' in the area. It seems as though the restoration plan for the site is not maximizing for the public the full benefit of the "after life" of the quarry, which is an opportunity missed to encourage people to have long-term benefit from the mineral extraction.

2) Mineral extraction by mining:

2a) The largest employer in East Leake is British Gypsum (Saint Gobain) which is famous for it's Plasterboard and 'Bag Plaster' that is vital to the building industry.

2b) For a number of years the Plasterboard has made use of De-Sulpher Gypsum which is a by-product of using Limestone filtration on chimney gases at Coal fired Power Stations. The nearest local supply is from Ratcliffe Power Station, with additional material being brought by rail from other Coal fired Power stations and other British Gypsum factories outside Nottinghamshire making use of De-Sulpher Gypsum from other power stations. However, the government has said that the Coal Fired power stations need to be closed down as part of the 'Global Warming' initiative, and H.M.G. have said all U.K. coal fired stations will be closed by 2025 giving a maximum seven year life to the facilities generating De-Sulpher Gypsum.

2c) This decision has a major impact on the Plasterboard manufacturing industry. The response of the Plasterboard manufacturers is to make more use of mined Gypsum. British Gypsum has already had permission to extend the East Leake Gypsum mine to meet the needs of the building industry, but the demand is bound to increase as 2025 approaches unless a suitable alternative to De-Sulpher Gypsum can be found.

2d) The Parish Council has serious concerns as to the approach of Nottinghamshire C.C. to address the situation and the knock-on effect in the East Leake Area in terms of both Employment and Business Rates. It has recently been announced that our County Council has not been selected as one of the 10 pilot areas to take part in the government scheme to change the way Business rates are retained by the local area with them saying by 2021 (i.e. 4 years before the 2025 deadline for coal fired power stations to shut down) 75% of business rates will be retained locally to replace government grants. This may have a significant impact on the local Council Tax for East Leake residents as

Ratcliffe Power Station and British Gypsum are the top two companies in the amount of Business Rates they pay in the Borough of Rushcliffe, and with the power station closing in its present form and British Gypsum having to accommodate a large reduction in the De-Sulpher raw material the tax income would seem to be totally unpredictable. The County Council does not seem to have a contingency plan as to how we are to overcome the potential loss of jobs in the area and an uncertainty as to how much government funding will be available in the post 20-21 arrangement to support the local community and the impact on Council tax.

2e) The Parish Council is concerned about the impact of potential Gypsum mining on the area which has suffered major housing development in recent years, and especially in the recent Rushcliffe allocation of land for housing. The policy for Gypsum mining is that houses should not be built above a mined area as the Gypsum can become unstable as has been demonstrated locally by, for example, the collapse of an old mine below the west Leake hills that collapsed leaving a pond that is said to be 20ft deep. The Parish Council would like to have the plans for both existing and potential new mining in the area put in the public domain so that the danger of housing being built over a potentially unstable mine can be identified early in the housing land application. A useful 20 year projection of potential mining area would back up the concern that we are getting excessive amounts of housing and increasing the risk that our local employer (British Gypsum) do not have the access to enough raw material to give long term protection to the business and the employment it generates. The present arrangement is likely to lead to increasing mileage to work for East Leake residents and in supplying the raw materials for our largest local business, impacting on the road network in the area and potentially creating an impact that could match the community issues when a major coal-field closes.