Minerals Local Plan Issues and Options consultation

CONSULTATION ON THE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE MINERALS LOCAL PLAN ISSUES AND OPTIONS DOCUMENT
Highways England welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan (MLP) Issues and Options consultation document. We note that the new MLP will cover the period 2016 to 2036 and will replace the current, out of date MLP which was adopted in 2005.
Highways England has been appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport as strategic highway company under the provisions of the Infrastructure Act 2015 and is the highway authority, traffic authority and street authority for the Strategic Road Network (SRN). It is our role to maintain the safe and efficient operation of the SRN whilst acting as a delivery partner to national economic growth. In relation to the Nottinghamshire area, our principle interest is safeguarding the operation of the M1, A1, A52, A46, and A453, which all route through the Local Plan area.
We acknowledge the fact that minerals are a finite resource and can only be worked where they are found. However, we welcome the Council's vision for mineral development to be "concentrated in locations that offer the greatest level of accessibility to the major markets and growth areas and to sustainable transport nodes to encourage sustainable patterns and modes of movement". We consider that this will help to reduce the amount of freight traffic on the SRN across Nottinghamshire.
At this stage of the Local Plan process, we have limited further comments to provide other than to highlight the fact that the transportation of minerals can have the potential to generate significant volumes of HGV traffic which could negatively impact upon the operation of the SRN. This should be considered as part of the site allocation process along with the potential need for identified sites to be accompanied with a Transport Assessment.
We trust that the above is useful in the progression of the Minerals Local Plan for Nottinghamshire County Council.