Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan

Consultation on the Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan

Thank you for giving the Environment Agency the opportunity to respond to the Nottinghamshire Draft Minerals Local Plan. We welcome the opportunity to review this Minerals Draft Local Plan and provide detailed comments where appropriate.
After review of the Draft Local Plan the Environment Agency has the following comments to make:

Vision

We welcome the overall aims of the Vision of the Plan.

We recommend that the visions aim that 'Mineral development will be designed, located and operated to ensure that environmental harm and impacts on climate change are mitigated', and not minimised. This would allow a vision that ensures no environmental harm and allows climate change impacts to be mitigated.

We welcome the Visions aims to ensure a reduction in flood risk, and to maintain or enhance the water quality within Nottinghamshire. We would welcome the inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within this section of the vision to ensure that the vision requires all development to have regard for WFD.

We welcome the Plan's vision to work towards 'a greener Nottinghamshire' and the protection and enhancements that the Plan strives for.

Strategic Objectives

SO3: Addressing Climate Change
The Environment Agency welcomes this objective, particularly in respect of the aim to reduce existing and future flood risk through good Quarry design and operation. We would also highlight that restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and should be a key consideration for all restorations proposals.

SO6: Protecting and enhancing natural assets
We welcome this strategic objective to conserve and enhance the natural environment of Nottinghamshire. We would ask that the word 'minimising' is removed to ensure that all development has no negative impact on the natural environment, especially biodiversity. We welcome the requirement to achieve the targets set out in the Water Framework Directive.
Policies

Policy SP2 - Minerals Provision
The Environment Agency welcomes point 2 of this policy requiring all proposals for mineral development to prioritise the avoidance of adverse environmental impacts of the proposed development through the use of appropriate mitigation and compensation conditions. This policy along with others for flood risk, water quality, biodiversity etc should be used to ensure suitable protection to the environment.

Policy SP3 - Biodiversity - Led Restoration
We welcome the inclusion of this strategic policy to ensure schemes that maximise biodiversity gains will be supported. We support the requirement to demonstrate how restoration will contribute towards WFD objectives by using restoration to improve and enhance the biodiversity of the environment.

We welcome the detailed inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) from section 3.29, in particular making reference to the Humber River Basin Management Plan (RBMP). The RBMP provides a framework for protecting and enhancing the benefits provided by the water environment. The Local Plan should ensure that all development follows the requirement of the RBMP and WFD to ensure suitable protection and enhancement of the water environment.

Policy SP4 - Climate Change
We welcome the overall aims of this policy. We would ask that part 1 of this policy is reworded to state that ' All minerals developments, including site preparation, operational practices and restoration proposals should reduce, or as a minimum, cause no increases in their impact on the causes of climate change for the life time of the development'

In respect of part b) we would suggest including that impacts should be 'reduced where possible, or as a minimum, fully mitigated' as well as stating that all development does not increase flood risk to the site and to others.

We welcome the inclusion of part c) to ensure that restorations schemes will address future climate change issues such as flood alleviation. We would highlight that water resources and water quality could be added in to this sentence to highlight these important issues.

Policy SP6 - The Built, Historic and Natural Environment
We welcome this policy and the initial requirement to ensure that all mineral development will be required to deliver a high standard of environmental protection and enhancement. We note that flood risk, water quality, water provision (Resources) and Biodiversity are included within this overall policy. The Environment Agency would highlight that these areas of impact will need to be protected and enhanced, and in the case of biodiversity, meet the requirements for WFD, and any development impacting flood risk will need to show that there is no increase in flood risk to the site, or to others.

Section 3.7.1 on page 44 refers to the Water Framework Directive and the date of 2015 for water bodies achieving good chemical and qualitative status. This date should be amended to 2027, which is the final deadline for meeting the objectives of the directive.
Section 4: Mineral Provision Policies

A number of the policies within this section for all mineral development types state that any proposals outside of the permitted sites will be supported where a need can be demonstrated. The Environment Agency would ask that additional wording is incorporated to ensure that these additional sites do not have a negative impact on the natural environment and are in line with the requirements of other policies to protect and enhance biodiversity, not increase flood risk to the site and others, and meet the targets of WFD.

General Water Resources Information

Abstractions for the purpose of dewatering mines, quarries or engineering excavations are currently exempt from the need for an abstraction licence under the Water Resources Act 1991. However, changes under the Water Act 2003 and draft regulations that have been laid in parliament before coming into force from 1st January 2018 will bring these abstractions into regulation under the abstraction licensing system. Once the regulations become live on 1st January 2018 a licence will be required for the majority of dewatering activities. There will be a two year application window until December 2019 for applications for existing dewatering operations to be made, to be followed by a three year determination period (from January 2020) for the Agency to process them. If the dewatering operations will take commence after 1st January 2018 the applicant would need to consult us at the earliest opportunity to discuss licensing requirements.

Any new licence would be dependent on whether resources are available as set out in the ALS (Abstraction Licensing Strategy). The applicant should be aware that the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer located within Nottinghamshire County Boundary is closed to further consumptive abstraction licences. In the Sherwood Sandstone the new extensions at Bestwood and Scrooby Top North could be impacted if there is any requirement for additional water from the underlying aquifer. Similarly, sand and gravel allocations for extensions and new sites will also have to have regard for any restrictions within the waterbodies the sites would be abstracting from. Any new consumptive abstractions may not be available depending on the location of the proposed allocation. This closureto the application of consumptive abstraction licences is to protect the ground and surface water environment. A copy of the relevant Abstraction Licensing Strategies the Lower Trent and Erewash and Idle and Torne can be found on Gov.uk following the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291403/LIT_3309_b5e317.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291404/LIT_5355_d453a5.pdf

Policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision
This area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.
Section 5 - Development Management Policies

Policy DM2: Water Resources and Flood Risk
At the Issues and Options stage we highlighted whether this policy should be split into two to split up flood risk and water resources. We also note that water quality is highlighted within the general introduction but then is not specifically mentioned within the title of the policy or the main document. At the time of restoration, proposals that help to enhance water quality should be supported.

We would suggest that the Policy title is amended to read as 'Flood Risk, Water Quality and Water Resources'. We would suggest that part 1 of this policy should be amended to say 'Water Resources and Water Quality'. We would suggest an additional bullet point highlighting water quality such as 'Water quality, both surface and groundwater, should be managed to ensure no deterioration, and where possible enhancement at the time of restoration, to help meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive'.

Flood Risk
The Environment Agency welcomes the inclusion of a flood risk policy. We would ask that in paragraph 2 an additional bullet point is added stating 'development does not increase flood risk to the site, or to others'.

Paragraph 3 we suggest the following wording is added 'risks can be fully mitigated, and does not increase flood risk to the site or others'

We welcome paragraph 4's overall aim to encourage restoration proposals to incorporate flood reduction measures. We would recommend that the wording is strengthened by using 'shall' instead of 'should'. 'Where the opportunity exists, restoration proposals shall incorporate flood risk reduction measures e.g. flood plain storage.....'. We also suggest that the importance of working with natural processes should also be included.

Section 5.25 on page 103 mentions the Environment Agency's Groundwater Protection Principles and Practice. This document has been superseded by the policies and position statements contained in the Environment Agency's Approach to Groundwater Protection which updates the previous document. Please refer to this newer document in the Minerals Plan. The Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy is now known as an Abstraction Licencing Strategy. This wording should be amended accordingly.

In section 5.29 the Local Plan mentions that Mineral Extractions can 'temporarily reduce storage capacity and therefore increase the risk of flooding elsewhere'. The Environment Agency would query this assertion and argue that all development, no matter how temporary in nature should not increase flood risk to elsewhere and therefore other people not directly involved in the proposed development. We therefore ask that this section is either removed or reworded to ensure that any development, temporary or not is designed to ensure there is no increase in flood risk to others.

We welcome the recognition in section 5.32 that multiple environmental benefit can be delivered through the restoration of minerals working, including flood risk management, water quality and WFD improvements. Restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk, both to the site, and to others and should be a key requirement of the future restoration plans.
We acknowledge that SUDs has been included in this policy but suggest that opportunities for encouraging biodiversity gains, and water quality improvements within SUDs features should also be included.

Policy DM3: Agricultural land and soil quality
We welcome the inclusion of soil quality within this policy to ensure that measures will be taken to ensure soil quality is protected. As mentioned within the justification, proper management of soils during restoration will ensure that there is reduced suspended solids entering local water courses, and in turn help towards the targets of the Water Framework Directive.

Policy DM4: Protection and Enhancement of Biodiversity and Geodiversity
Biodiversity should be protected and enhanced throughout any mineral development. Development should be designed in such a way to ensure that any impacted areas of biodiversity are protected and enhanced.

We welcome point 3 of the policy that states that 'biodiversity....will be enhanced' as part of the restoration process. Restoration offers the opportunities to improve the biodiversity of the environment such as river restoration and floodplain wetland creation. Where relevant, the opportunities to provide these biodiversity enhancements should be looked into.

Policy DM12: Restoration, after-use and aftercare
The Environment Agency welcomes the requirement that this policy should be considered alongside Policy SP3: Biodiversity - Led Restoration. We welcome point 1 of this policy that supports development where the restoration will enable long-term enhancement of the environment. Restoration offers the opportunity to provide multiple environmental benefits, such as enhancement of biodiversity, and where applicable, reducing flood risk through detailed and considered designs of the restoration scheme to provide reduced flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 3, where full restoration plans are not available, we would expect to see detailed information on flood risk to show how flood risk could be reduced, as restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 4 and the importation of waste, we would highlight that all waste importation would need to be assessed to understand whether a permit is required. We note that section 5.128 & 5.129 highlights the requirement to gain advice from the Environment Agency which we welcome.

Regarding point 8, we welcome this point highlighting that after-use proposals should provide benefits to the local and wider community from an environmental perspective in areas such as flood plain storage and reconnection.

Restoration also offers the opportunity to further improve and enhance others areas of the environment such as water quality and biodiversity such as river restoration for all watercourses, and floodplain wetland creation. The enhancements of these areas should also be a key requirement for future restoration proposals

DM14: Irrigation Lagoons
We welcome section 5.143 highlighting that abstraction in some parts of the county is closed.

DM17: Mineral Exploration
Section 5.166 on page 145 makes reference to deep boreholes specifically those associated with the exploration for coal, oil and gas. The construction of such boreholes would also require various permits from the Environment Agency usually to control the handling of any waste produced from drilling a deep borehole and to protect groundwater.

Appendix 3: Site Allocation Development Briefs

Bawtry
The site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Thompson
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Botany Bay
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Langford Lowfields South and West
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Langford Lowfields North
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Mill Hill
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We again welcome the requirement for restoration to be biodiversity lead. Again to opportunity to enhance the biodiversity of the area is a welcome aim of the site specific policy. We also welcome that other multi - functional benefits such as flood storage should be explored. As previously mentioned, restoration offers the opportunity reduce flood risk to the site and others, and therefore should be another key requirement of any future restoration at this site.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. We welcome any investigation that will help to ensure water quality at the designated Holme Pit SSSI, which is something that has been highlighted by Natural England.

East Leake
If any additional abstraction is required from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer then it is unlikely any water will be available for abstraction.

Bestwood 2 East and Bestwood 2 North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Top North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Woodborough Lane
As previously mentoned in our comments for policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision, this area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.

Bantycock
Part of the site is situated in the flood zone. A FRA may be required if development is proposed within this area.

Consultation on the Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan

Thank you for giving the Environment Agency the opportunity to respond to the Nottinghamshire Draft Minerals Local Plan. We welcome the opportunity to review this Minerals Draft Local Plan and provide detailed comments where appropriate.
After review of the Draft Local Plan the Environment Agency has the following comments to make:

Vision

We welcome the overall aims of the Vision of the Plan.

We recommend that the visions aim that 'Mineral development will be designed, located and operated to ensure that environmental harm and impacts on climate change are mitigated', and not minimised. This would allow a vision that ensures no environmental harm and allows climate change impacts to be mitigated.

We welcome the Visions aims to ensure a reduction in flood risk, and to maintain or enhance the water quality within Nottinghamshire. We would welcome the inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within this section of the vision to ensure that the vision requires all development to have regard for WFD.

We welcome the Plan's vision to work towards 'a greener Nottinghamshire' and the protection and enhancements that the Plan strives for.

Strategic Objectives

SO3: Addressing Climate Change
The Environment Agency welcomes this objective, particularly in respect of the aim to reduce existing and future flood risk through good Quarry design and operation. We would also highlight that restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and should be a key consideration for all restorations proposals.

SO6: Protecting and enhancing natural assets
We welcome this strategic objective to conserve and enhance the natural environment of Nottinghamshire. We would ask that the word 'minimising' is removed to ensure that all development has no negative impact on the natural environment, especially biodiversity. We welcome the requirement to achieve the targets set out in the Water Framework Directive.
Policies

Policy SP2 - Minerals Provision
The Environment Agency welcomes point 2 of this policy requiring all proposals for mineral development to prioritise the avoidance of adverse environmental impacts of the proposed development through the use of appropriate mitigation and compensation conditions. This policy along with others for flood risk, water quality, biodiversity etc should be used to ensure suitable protection to the environment.

Policy SP3 - Biodiversity - Led Restoration
We welcome the inclusion of this strategic policy to ensure schemes that maximise biodiversity gains will be supported. We support the requirement to demonstrate how restoration will contribute towards WFD objectives by using restoration to improve and enhance the biodiversity of the environment.

We welcome the detailed inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) from section 3.29, in particular making reference to the Humber River Basin Management Plan (RBMP). The RBMP provides a framework for protecting and enhancing the benefits provided by the water environment. The Local Plan should ensure that all development follows the requirement of the RBMP and WFD to ensure suitable protection and enhancement of the water environment.

Policy SP4 - Climate Change
We welcome the overall aims of this policy. We would ask that part 1 of this policy is reworded to state that ' All minerals developments, including site preparation, operational practices and restoration proposals should reduce, or as a minimum, cause no increases in their impact on the causes of climate change for the life time of the development'

In respect of part b) we would suggest including that impacts should be 'reduced where possible, or as a minimum, fully mitigated' as well as stating that all development does not increase flood risk to the site and to others.

We welcome the inclusion of part c) to ensure that restorations schemes will address future climate change issues such as flood alleviation. We would highlight that water resources and water quality could be added in to this sentence to highlight these important issues.

Policy SP6 - The Built, Historic and Natural Environment
We welcome this policy and the initial requirement to ensure that all mineral development will be required to deliver a high standard of environmental protection and enhancement. We note that flood risk, water quality, water provision (Resources) and Biodiversity are included within this overall policy. The Environment Agency would highlight that these areas of impact will need to be protected and enhanced, and in the case of biodiversity, meet the requirements for WFD, and any development impacting flood risk will need to show that there is no increase in flood risk to the site, or to others.

Section 3.7.1 on page 44 refers to the Water Framework Directive and the date of 2015 for water bodies achieving good chemical and qualitative status. This date should be amended to 2027, which is the final deadline for meeting the objectives of the directive.
Section 4: Mineral Provision Policies

A number of the policies within this section for all mineral development types state that any proposals outside of the permitted sites will be supported where a need can be demonstrated. The Environment Agency would ask that additional wording is incorporated to ensure that these additional sites do not have a negative impact on the natural environment and are in line with the requirements of other policies to protect and enhance biodiversity, not increase flood risk to the site and others, and meet the targets of WFD.

General Water Resources Information

Abstractions for the purpose of dewatering mines, quarries or engineering excavations are currently exempt from the need for an abstraction licence under the Water Resources Act 1991. However, changes under the Water Act 2003 and draft regulations that have been laid in parliament before coming into force from 1st January 2018 will bring these abstractions into regulation under the abstraction licensing system. Once the regulations become live on 1st January 2018 a licence will be required for the majority of dewatering activities. There will be a two year application window until December 2019 for applications for existing dewatering operations to be made, to be followed by a three year determination period (from January 2020) for the Agency to process them. If the dewatering operations will take commence after 1st January 2018 the applicant would need to consult us at the earliest opportunity to discuss licensing requirements.

Any new licence would be dependent on whether resources are available as set out in the ALS (Abstraction Licensing Strategy). The applicant should be aware that the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer located within Nottinghamshire County Boundary is closed to further consumptive abstraction licences. In the Sherwood Sandstone the new extensions at Bestwood and Scrooby Top North could be impacted if there is any requirement for additional water from the underlying aquifer. Similarly, sand and gravel allocations for extensions and new sites will also have to have regard for any restrictions within the waterbodies the sites would be abstracting from. Any new consumptive abstractions may not be available depending on the location of the proposed allocation. This closureto the application of consumptive abstraction licences is to protect the ground and surface water environment. A copy of the relevant Abstraction Licensing Strategies the Lower Trent and Erewash and Idle and Torne can be found on Gov.uk following the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291403/LIT_3309_b5e317.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291404/LIT_5355_d453a5.pdf

Policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision
This area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.
Section 5 - Development Management Policies

Policy DM2: Water Resources and Flood Risk
At the Issues and Options stage we highlighted whether this policy should be split into two to split up flood risk and water resources. We also note that water quality is highlighted within the general introduction but then is not specifically mentioned within the title of the policy or the main document. At the time of restoration, proposals that help to enhance water quality should be supported.

We would suggest that the Policy title is amended to read as 'Flood Risk, Water Quality and Water Resources'. We would suggest that part 1 of this policy should be amended to say 'Water Resources and Water Quality'. We would suggest an additional bullet point highlighting water quality such as 'Water quality, both surface and groundwater, should be managed to ensure no deterioration, and where possible enhancement at the time of restoration, to help meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive'.

Flood Risk
The Environment Agency welcomes the inclusion of a flood risk policy. We would ask that in paragraph 2 an additional bullet point is added stating 'development does not increase flood risk to the site, or to others'.

Paragraph 3 we suggest the following wording is added 'risks can be fully mitigated, and does not increase flood risk to the site or others'

We welcome paragraph 4's overall aim to encourage restoration proposals to incorporate flood reduction measures. We would recommend that the wording is strengthened by using 'shall' instead of 'should'. 'Where the opportunity exists, restoration proposals shall incorporate flood risk reduction measures e.g. flood plain storage.....'. We also suggest that the importance of working with natural processes should also be included.

Section 5.25 on page 103 mentions the Environment Agency's Groundwater Protection Principles and Practice. This document has been superseded by the policies and position statements contained in the Environment Agency's Approach to Groundwater Protection which updates the previous document. Please refer to this newer document in the Minerals Plan. The Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy is now known as an Abstraction Licencing Strategy. This wording should be amended accordingly.

In section 5.29 the Local Plan mentions that Mineral Extractions can 'temporarily reduce storage capacity and therefore increase the risk of flooding elsewhere'. The Environment Agency would query this assertion and argue that all development, no matter how temporary in nature should not increase flood risk to elsewhere and therefore other people not directly involved in the proposed development. We therefore ask that this section is either removed or reworded to ensure that any development, temporary or not is designed to ensure there is no increase in flood risk to others.

We welcome the recognition in section 5.32 that multiple environmental benefit can be delivered through the restoration of minerals working, including flood risk management, water quality and WFD improvements. Restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk, both to the site, and to others and should be a key requirement of the future restoration plans.
We acknowledge that SUDs has been included in this policy but suggest that opportunities for encouraging biodiversity gains, and water quality improvements within SUDs features should also be included.

Policy DM3: Agricultural land and soil quality
We welcome the inclusion of soil quality within this policy to ensure that measures will be taken to ensure soil quality is protected. As mentioned within the justification, proper management of soils during restoration will ensure that there is reduced suspended solids entering local water courses, and in turn help towards the targets of the Water Framework Directive.

Policy DM4: Protection and Enhancement of Biodiversity and Geodiversity
Biodiversity should be protected and enhanced throughout any mineral development. Development should be designed in such a way to ensure that any impacted areas of biodiversity are protected and enhanced.

We welcome point 3 of the policy that states that 'biodiversity....will be enhanced' as part of the restoration process. Restoration offers the opportunities to improve the biodiversity of the environment such as river restoration and floodplain wetland creation. Where relevant, the opportunities to provide these biodiversity enhancements should be looked into.

Policy DM12: Restoration, after-use and aftercare
The Environment Agency welcomes the requirement that this policy should be considered alongside Policy SP3: Biodiversity - Led Restoration. We welcome point 1 of this policy that supports development where the restoration will enable long-term enhancement of the environment. Restoration offers the opportunity to provide multiple environmental benefits, such as enhancement of biodiversity, and where applicable, reducing flood risk through detailed and considered designs of the restoration scheme to provide reduced flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 3, where full restoration plans are not available, we would expect to see detailed information on flood risk to show how flood risk could be reduced, as restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 4 and the importation of waste, we would highlight that all waste importation would need to be assessed to understand whether a permit is required. We note that section 5.128 & 5.129 highlights the requirement to gain advice from the Environment Agency which we welcome.

Regarding point 8, we welcome this point highlighting that after-use proposals should provide benefits to the local and wider community from an environmental perspective in areas such as flood plain storage and reconnection.

Restoration also offers the opportunity to further improve and enhance others areas of the environment such as water quality and biodiversity such as river restoration for all watercourses, and floodplain wetland creation. The enhancements of these areas should also be a key requirement for future restoration proposals

DM14: Irrigation Lagoons
We welcome section 5.143 highlighting that abstraction in some parts of the county is closed.

DM17: Mineral Exploration
Section 5.166 on page 145 makes reference to deep boreholes specifically those associated with the exploration for coal, oil and gas. The construction of such boreholes would also require various permits from the Environment Agency usually to control the handling of any waste produced from drilling a deep borehole and to protect groundwater.

Appendix 3: Site Allocation Development Briefs

Bawtry
The site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Thompson
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Botany Bay
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Langford Lowfields South and West
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Langford Lowfields North
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Mill Hill
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We again welcome the requirement for restoration to be biodiversity lead. Again to opportunity to enhance the biodiversity of the area is a welcome aim of the site specific policy. We also welcome that other multi - functional benefits such as flood storage should be explored. As previously mentioned, restoration offers the opportunity reduce flood risk to the site and others, and therefore should be another key requirement of any future restoration at this site.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. We welcome any investigation that will help to ensure water quality at the designated Holme Pit SSSI, which is something that has been highlighted by Natural England.

East Leake
If any additional abstraction is required from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer then it is unlikely any water will be available for abstraction.

Bestwood 2 East and Bestwood 2 North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Top North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Woodborough Lane
As previously mentoned in our comments for policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision, this area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.

Bantycock
Part of the site is situated in the flood zone. A FRA may be required if development is proposed within this area.

Consultation on the Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan

Thank you for giving the Environment Agency the opportunity to respond to the Nottinghamshire Draft Minerals Local Plan. We welcome the opportunity to review this Minerals Draft Local Plan and provide detailed comments where appropriate.
After review of the Draft Local Plan the Environment Agency has the following comments to make:

Vision

We welcome the overall aims of the Vision of the Plan.

We recommend that the visions aim that 'Mineral development will be designed, located and operated to ensure that environmental harm and impacts on climate change are mitigated', and not minimised. This would allow a vision that ensures no environmental harm and allows climate change impacts to be mitigated.

We welcome the Visions aims to ensure a reduction in flood risk, and to maintain or enhance the water quality within Nottinghamshire. We would welcome the inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within this section of the vision to ensure that the vision requires all development to have regard for WFD.

We welcome the Plan's vision to work towards 'a greener Nottinghamshire' and the protection and enhancements that the Plan strives for.

Strategic Objectives

SO3: Addressing Climate Change
The Environment Agency welcomes this objective, particularly in respect of the aim to reduce existing and future flood risk through good Quarry design and operation. We would also highlight that restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and should be a key consideration for all restorations proposals.

SO6: Protecting and enhancing natural assets
We welcome this strategic objective to conserve and enhance the natural environment of Nottinghamshire. We would ask that the word 'minimising' is removed to ensure that all development has no negative impact on the natural environment, especially biodiversity. We welcome the requirement to achieve the targets set out in the Water Framework Directive.
Policies

Policy SP2 - Minerals Provision
The Environment Agency welcomes point 2 of this policy requiring all proposals for mineral development to prioritise the avoidance of adverse environmental impacts of the proposed development through the use of appropriate mitigation and compensation conditions. This policy along with others for flood risk, water quality, biodiversity etc should be used to ensure suitable protection to the environment.

Policy SP3 - Biodiversity - Led Restoration
We welcome the inclusion of this strategic policy to ensure schemes that maximise biodiversity gains will be supported. We support the requirement to demonstrate how restoration will contribute towards WFD objectives by using restoration to improve and enhance the biodiversity of the environment.

We welcome the detailed inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) from section 3.29, in particular making reference to the Humber River Basin Management Plan (RBMP). The RBMP provides a framework for protecting and enhancing the benefits provided by the water environment. The Local Plan should ensure that all development follows the requirement of the RBMP and WFD to ensure suitable protection and enhancement of the water environment.

Policy SP4 - Climate Change
We welcome the overall aims of this policy. We would ask that part 1 of this policy is reworded to state that ' All minerals developments, including site preparation, operational practices and restoration proposals should reduce, or as a minimum, cause no increases in their impact on the causes of climate change for the life time of the development'

In respect of part b) we would suggest including that impacts should be 'reduced where possible, or as a minimum, fully mitigated' as well as stating that all development does not increase flood risk to the site and to others.

We welcome the inclusion of part c) to ensure that restorations schemes will address future climate change issues such as flood alleviation. We would highlight that water resources and water quality could be added in to this sentence to highlight these important issues.

Policy SP6 - The Built, Historic and Natural Environment
We welcome this policy and the initial requirement to ensure that all mineral development will be required to deliver a high standard of environmental protection and enhancement. We note that flood risk, water quality, water provision (Resources) and Biodiversity are included within this overall policy. The Environment Agency would highlight that these areas of impact will need to be protected and enhanced, and in the case of biodiversity, meet the requirements for WFD, and any development impacting flood risk will need to show that there is no increase in flood risk to the site, or to others.

Section 3.7.1 on page 44 refers to the Water Framework Directive and the date of 2015 for water bodies achieving good chemical and qualitative status. This date should be amended to 2027, which is the final deadline for meeting the objectives of the directive.
Section 4: Mineral Provision Policies

A number of the policies within this section for all mineral development types state that any proposals outside of the permitted sites will be supported where a need can be demonstrated. The Environment Agency would ask that additional wording is incorporated to ensure that these additional sites do not have a negative impact on the natural environment and are in line with the requirements of other policies to protect and enhance biodiversity, not increase flood risk to the site and others, and meet the targets of WFD.

General Water Resources Information

Abstractions for the purpose of dewatering mines, quarries or engineering excavations are currently exempt from the need for an abstraction licence under the Water Resources Act 1991. However, changes under the Water Act 2003 and draft regulations that have been laid in parliament before coming into force from 1st January 2018 will bring these abstractions into regulation under the abstraction licensing system. Once the regulations become live on 1st January 2018 a licence will be required for the majority of dewatering activities. There will be a two year application window until December 2019 for applications for existing dewatering operations to be made, to be followed by a three year determination period (from January 2020) for the Agency to process them. If the dewatering operations will take commence after 1st January 2018 the applicant would need to consult us at the earliest opportunity to discuss licensing requirements.

Any new licence would be dependent on whether resources are available as set out in the ALS (Abstraction Licensing Strategy). The applicant should be aware that the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer located within Nottinghamshire County Boundary is closed to further consumptive abstraction licences. In the Sherwood Sandstone the new extensions at Bestwood and Scrooby Top North could be impacted if there is any requirement for additional water from the underlying aquifer. Similarly, sand and gravel allocations for extensions and new sites will also have to have regard for any restrictions within the waterbodies the sites would be abstracting from. Any new consumptive abstractions may not be available depending on the location of the proposed allocation. This closureto the application of consumptive abstraction licences is to protect the ground and surface water environment. A copy of the relevant Abstraction Licensing Strategies the Lower Trent and Erewash and Idle and Torne can be found on Gov.uk following the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291403/LIT_3309_b5e317.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291404/LIT_5355_d453a5.pdf

Policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision
This area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.
Section 5 - Development Management Policies

Policy DM2: Water Resources and Flood Risk
At the Issues and Options stage we highlighted whether this policy should be split into two to split up flood risk and water resources. We also note that water quality is highlighted within the general introduction but then is not specifically mentioned within the title of the policy or the main document. At the time of restoration, proposals that help to enhance water quality should be supported.

We would suggest that the Policy title is amended to read as 'Flood Risk, Water Quality and Water Resources'. We would suggest that part 1 of this policy should be amended to say 'Water Resources and Water Quality'. We would suggest an additional bullet point highlighting water quality such as 'Water quality, both surface and groundwater, should be managed to ensure no deterioration, and where possible enhancement at the time of restoration, to help meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive'.

Flood Risk
The Environment Agency welcomes the inclusion of a flood risk policy. We would ask that in paragraph 2 an additional bullet point is added stating 'development does not increase flood risk to the site, or to others'.

Paragraph 3 we suggest the following wording is added 'risks can be fully mitigated, and does not increase flood risk to the site or others'

We welcome paragraph 4's overall aim to encourage restoration proposals to incorporate flood reduction measures. We would recommend that the wording is strengthened by using 'shall' instead of 'should'. 'Where the opportunity exists, restoration proposals shall incorporate flood risk reduction measures e.g. flood plain storage.....'. We also suggest that the importance of working with natural processes should also be included.

Section 5.25 on page 103 mentions the Environment Agency's Groundwater Protection Principles and Practice. This document has been superseded by the policies and position statements contained in the Environment Agency's Approach to Groundwater Protection which updates the previous document. Please refer to this newer document in the Minerals Plan. The Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy is now known as an Abstraction Licencing Strategy. This wording should be amended accordingly.

In section 5.29 the Local Plan mentions that Mineral Extractions can 'temporarily reduce storage capacity and therefore increase the risk of flooding elsewhere'. The Environment Agency would query this assertion and argue that all development, no matter how temporary in nature should not increase flood risk to elsewhere and therefore other people not directly involved in the proposed development. We therefore ask that this section is either removed or reworded to ensure that any development, temporary or not is designed to ensure there is no increase in flood risk to others.

We welcome the recognition in section 5.32 that multiple environmental benefit can be delivered through the restoration of minerals working, including flood risk management, water quality and WFD improvements. Restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk, both to the site, and to others and should be a key requirement of the future restoration plans.
We acknowledge that SUDs has been included in this policy but suggest that opportunities for encouraging biodiversity gains, and water quality improvements within SUDs features should also be included.

Policy DM3: Agricultural land and soil quality
We welcome the inclusion of soil quality within this policy to ensure that measures will be taken to ensure soil quality is protected. As mentioned within the justification, proper management of soils during restoration will ensure that there is reduced suspended solids entering local water courses, and in turn help towards the targets of the Water Framework Directive.

Policy DM4: Protection and Enhancement of Biodiversity and Geodiversity
Biodiversity should be protected and enhanced throughout any mineral development. Development should be designed in such a way to ensure that any impacted areas of biodiversity are protected and enhanced.

We welcome point 3 of the policy that states that 'biodiversity....will be enhanced' as part of the restoration process. Restoration offers the opportunities to improve the biodiversity of the environment such as river restoration and floodplain wetland creation. Where relevant, the opportunities to provide these biodiversity enhancements should be looked into.

Policy DM12: Restoration, after-use and aftercare
The Environment Agency welcomes the requirement that this policy should be considered alongside Policy SP3: Biodiversity - Led Restoration. We welcome point 1 of this policy that supports development where the restoration will enable long-term enhancement of the environment. Restoration offers the opportunity to provide multiple environmental benefits, such as enhancement of biodiversity, and where applicable, reducing flood risk through detailed and considered designs of the restoration scheme to provide reduced flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 3, where full restoration plans are not available, we would expect to see detailed information on flood risk to show how flood risk could be reduced, as restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 4 and the importation of waste, we would highlight that all waste importation would need to be assessed to understand whether a permit is required. We note that section 5.128 & 5.129 highlights the requirement to gain advice from the Environment Agency which we welcome.

Regarding point 8, we welcome this point highlighting that after-use proposals should provide benefits to the local and wider community from an environmental perspective in areas such as flood plain storage and reconnection.

Restoration also offers the opportunity to further improve and enhance others areas of the environment such as water quality and biodiversity such as river restoration for all watercourses, and floodplain wetland creation. The enhancements of these areas should also be a key requirement for future restoration proposals

DM14: Irrigation Lagoons
We welcome section 5.143 highlighting that abstraction in some parts of the county is closed.

DM17: Mineral Exploration
Section 5.166 on page 145 makes reference to deep boreholes specifically those associated with the exploration for coal, oil and gas. The construction of such boreholes would also require various permits from the Environment Agency usually to control the handling of any waste produced from drilling a deep borehole and to protect groundwater.

Appendix 3: Site Allocation Development Briefs

Bawtry
The site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Thompson
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Botany Bay
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Langford Lowfields South and West
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Langford Lowfields North
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Mill Hill
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We again welcome the requirement for restoration to be biodiversity lead. Again to opportunity to enhance the biodiversity of the area is a welcome aim of the site specific policy. We also welcome that other multi - functional benefits such as flood storage should be explored. As previously mentioned, restoration offers the opportunity reduce flood risk to the site and others, and therefore should be another key requirement of any future restoration at this site.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. We welcome any investigation that will help to ensure water quality at the designated Holme Pit SSSI, which is something that has been highlighted by Natural England.

East Leake
If any additional abstraction is required from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer then it is unlikely any water will be available for abstraction.

Bestwood 2 East and Bestwood 2 North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Top North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Woodborough Lane
As previously mentoned in our comments for policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision, this area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.

Bantycock
Part of the site is situated in the flood zone. A FRA may be required if development is proposed within this area.

Consultation on the Draft Nottinghamshire Minerals Local Plan

Thank you for giving the Environment Agency the opportunity to respond to the Nottinghamshire Draft Minerals Local Plan. We welcome the opportunity to review this Minerals Draft Local Plan and provide detailed comments where appropriate.
After review of the Draft Local Plan the Environment Agency has the following comments to make:

Vision

We welcome the overall aims of the Vision of the Plan.

We recommend that the visions aim that 'Mineral development will be designed, located and operated to ensure that environmental harm and impacts on climate change are mitigated', and not minimised. This would allow a vision that ensures no environmental harm and allows climate change impacts to be mitigated.

We welcome the Visions aims to ensure a reduction in flood risk, and to maintain or enhance the water quality within Nottinghamshire. We would welcome the inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) within this section of the vision to ensure that the vision requires all development to have regard for WFD.

We welcome the Plan's vision to work towards 'a greener Nottinghamshire' and the protection and enhancements that the Plan strives for.

Strategic Objectives

SO3: Addressing Climate Change
The Environment Agency welcomes this objective, particularly in respect of the aim to reduce existing and future flood risk through good Quarry design and operation. We would also highlight that restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and should be a key consideration for all restorations proposals.

SO6: Protecting and enhancing natural assets
We welcome this strategic objective to conserve and enhance the natural environment of Nottinghamshire. We would ask that the word 'minimising' is removed to ensure that all development has no negative impact on the natural environment, especially biodiversity. We welcome the requirement to achieve the targets set out in the Water Framework Directive.
Policies

Policy SP2 - Minerals Provision
The Environment Agency welcomes point 2 of this policy requiring all proposals for mineral development to prioritise the avoidance of adverse environmental impacts of the proposed development through the use of appropriate mitigation and compensation conditions. This policy along with others for flood risk, water quality, biodiversity etc should be used to ensure suitable protection to the environment.

Policy SP3 - Biodiversity - Led Restoration
We welcome the inclusion of this strategic policy to ensure schemes that maximise biodiversity gains will be supported. We support the requirement to demonstrate how restoration will contribute towards WFD objectives by using restoration to improve and enhance the biodiversity of the environment.

We welcome the detailed inclusion of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) from section 3.29, in particular making reference to the Humber River Basin Management Plan (RBMP). The RBMP provides a framework for protecting and enhancing the benefits provided by the water environment. The Local Plan should ensure that all development follows the requirement of the RBMP and WFD to ensure suitable protection and enhancement of the water environment.

Policy SP4 - Climate Change
We welcome the overall aims of this policy. We would ask that part 1 of this policy is reworded to state that ' All minerals developments, including site preparation, operational practices and restoration proposals should reduce, or as a minimum, cause no increases in their impact on the causes of climate change for the life time of the development'

In respect of part b) we would suggest including that impacts should be 'reduced where possible, or as a minimum, fully mitigated' as well as stating that all development does not increase flood risk to the site and to others.

We welcome the inclusion of part c) to ensure that restorations schemes will address future climate change issues such as flood alleviation. We would highlight that water resources and water quality could be added in to this sentence to highlight these important issues.

Policy SP6 - The Built, Historic and Natural Environment
We welcome this policy and the initial requirement to ensure that all mineral development will be required to deliver a high standard of environmental protection and enhancement. We note that flood risk, water quality, water provision (Resources) and Biodiversity are included within this overall policy. The Environment Agency would highlight that these areas of impact will need to be protected and enhanced, and in the case of biodiversity, meet the requirements for WFD, and any development impacting flood risk will need to show that there is no increase in flood risk to the site, or to others.

Section 3.7.1 on page 44 refers to the Water Framework Directive and the date of 2015 for water bodies achieving good chemical and qualitative status. This date should be amended to 2027, which is the final deadline for meeting the objectives of the directive.
Section 4: Mineral Provision Policies

A number of the policies within this section for all mineral development types state that any proposals outside of the permitted sites will be supported where a need can be demonstrated. The Environment Agency would ask that additional wording is incorporated to ensure that these additional sites do not have a negative impact on the natural environment and are in line with the requirements of other policies to protect and enhance biodiversity, not increase flood risk to the site and others, and meet the targets of WFD.

General Water Resources Information

Abstractions for the purpose of dewatering mines, quarries or engineering excavations are currently exempt from the need for an abstraction licence under the Water Resources Act 1991. However, changes under the Water Act 2003 and draft regulations that have been laid in parliament before coming into force from 1st January 2018 will bring these abstractions into regulation under the abstraction licensing system. Once the regulations become live on 1st January 2018 a licence will be required for the majority of dewatering activities. There will be a two year application window until December 2019 for applications for existing dewatering operations to be made, to be followed by a three year determination period (from January 2020) for the Agency to process them. If the dewatering operations will take commence after 1st January 2018 the applicant would need to consult us at the earliest opportunity to discuss licensing requirements.

Any new licence would be dependent on whether resources are available as set out in the ALS (Abstraction Licensing Strategy). The applicant should be aware that the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer located within Nottinghamshire County Boundary is closed to further consumptive abstraction licences. In the Sherwood Sandstone the new extensions at Bestwood and Scrooby Top North could be impacted if there is any requirement for additional water from the underlying aquifer. Similarly, sand and gravel allocations for extensions and new sites will also have to have regard for any restrictions within the waterbodies the sites would be abstracting from. Any new consumptive abstractions may not be available depending on the location of the proposed allocation. This closureto the application of consumptive abstraction licences is to protect the ground and surface water environment. A copy of the relevant Abstraction Licensing Strategies the Lower Trent and Erewash and Idle and Torne can be found on Gov.uk following the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291403/LIT_3309_b5e317.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291404/LIT_5355_d453a5.pdf

Policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision
This area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.
Section 5 - Development Management Policies

Policy DM2: Water Resources and Flood Risk
At the Issues and Options stage we highlighted whether this policy should be split into two to split up flood risk and water resources. We also note that water quality is highlighted within the general introduction but then is not specifically mentioned within the title of the policy or the main document. At the time of restoration, proposals that help to enhance water quality should be supported.

We would suggest that the Policy title is amended to read as 'Flood Risk, Water Quality and Water Resources'. We would suggest that part 1 of this policy should be amended to say 'Water Resources and Water Quality'. We would suggest an additional bullet point highlighting water quality such as 'Water quality, both surface and groundwater, should be managed to ensure no deterioration, and where possible enhancement at the time of restoration, to help meet the requirements of the Water Framework Directive'.

Flood Risk
The Environment Agency welcomes the inclusion of a flood risk policy. We would ask that in paragraph 2 an additional bullet point is added stating 'development does not increase flood risk to the site, or to others'.

Paragraph 3 we suggest the following wording is added 'risks can be fully mitigated, and does not increase flood risk to the site or others'

We welcome paragraph 4's overall aim to encourage restoration proposals to incorporate flood reduction measures. We would recommend that the wording is strengthened by using 'shall' instead of 'should'. 'Where the opportunity exists, restoration proposals shall incorporate flood risk reduction measures e.g. flood plain storage.....'. We also suggest that the importance of working with natural processes should also be included.

Section 5.25 on page 103 mentions the Environment Agency's Groundwater Protection Principles and Practice. This document has been superseded by the policies and position statements contained in the Environment Agency's Approach to Groundwater Protection which updates the previous document. Please refer to this newer document in the Minerals Plan. The Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy is now known as an Abstraction Licencing Strategy. This wording should be amended accordingly.

In section 5.29 the Local Plan mentions that Mineral Extractions can 'temporarily reduce storage capacity and therefore increase the risk of flooding elsewhere'. The Environment Agency would query this assertion and argue that all development, no matter how temporary in nature should not increase flood risk to elsewhere and therefore other people not directly involved in the proposed development. We therefore ask that this section is either removed or reworded to ensure that any development, temporary or not is designed to ensure there is no increase in flood risk to others.

We welcome the recognition in section 5.32 that multiple environmental benefit can be delivered through the restoration of minerals working, including flood risk management, water quality and WFD improvements. Restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk, both to the site, and to others and should be a key requirement of the future restoration plans.
We acknowledge that SUDs has been included in this policy but suggest that opportunities for encouraging biodiversity gains, and water quality improvements within SUDs features should also be included.

Policy DM3: Agricultural land and soil quality
We welcome the inclusion of soil quality within this policy to ensure that measures will be taken to ensure soil quality is protected. As mentioned within the justification, proper management of soils during restoration will ensure that there is reduced suspended solids entering local water courses, and in turn help towards the targets of the Water Framework Directive.

Policy DM4: Protection and Enhancement of Biodiversity and Geodiversity
Biodiversity should be protected and enhanced throughout any mineral development. Development should be designed in such a way to ensure that any impacted areas of biodiversity are protected and enhanced.

We welcome point 3 of the policy that states that 'biodiversity....will be enhanced' as part of the restoration process. Restoration offers the opportunities to improve the biodiversity of the environment such as river restoration and floodplain wetland creation. Where relevant, the opportunities to provide these biodiversity enhancements should be looked into.

Policy DM12: Restoration, after-use and aftercare
The Environment Agency welcomes the requirement that this policy should be considered alongside Policy SP3: Biodiversity - Led Restoration. We welcome point 1 of this policy that supports development where the restoration will enable long-term enhancement of the environment. Restoration offers the opportunity to provide multiple environmental benefits, such as enhancement of biodiversity, and where applicable, reducing flood risk through detailed and considered designs of the restoration scheme to provide reduced flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 3, where full restoration plans are not available, we would expect to see detailed information on flood risk to show how flood risk could be reduced, as restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others.

Regarding point 4 and the importation of waste, we would highlight that all waste importation would need to be assessed to understand whether a permit is required. We note that section 5.128 & 5.129 highlights the requirement to gain advice from the Environment Agency which we welcome.

Regarding point 8, we welcome this point highlighting that after-use proposals should provide benefits to the local and wider community from an environmental perspective in areas such as flood plain storage and reconnection.

Restoration also offers the opportunity to further improve and enhance others areas of the environment such as water quality and biodiversity such as river restoration for all watercourses, and floodplain wetland creation. The enhancements of these areas should also be a key requirement for future restoration proposals

DM14: Irrigation Lagoons
We welcome section 5.143 highlighting that abstraction in some parts of the county is closed.

DM17: Mineral Exploration
Section 5.166 on page 145 makes reference to deep boreholes specifically those associated with the exploration for coal, oil and gas. The construction of such boreholes would also require various permits from the Environment Agency usually to control the handling of any waste produced from drilling a deep borehole and to protect groundwater.

Appendix 3: Site Allocation Development Briefs

Bawtry
The site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Thompson
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Botany Bay
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Langford Lowfields South and West
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Langford Lowfields North
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We welcome the quarry restoration proposals to provide an increase in wetland habitats. As well as biodiversity improvements, restoration offers the opportunity to reduce flood risk to the site and to others and we ask that this is also mentioned within this section to ensure flood risk betterment.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. This should also be an aim of any future restoration.

Mill Hill
This site is situated in the flood zones. We welcome the inclusion of the 45m exclusion zones from the flood defences and River Trent. A flood risk assessment should also make use of available data from the Environment Agency.

We again welcome the requirement for restoration to be biodiversity lead. Again to opportunity to enhance the biodiversity of the area is a welcome aim of the site specific policy. We also welcome that other multi - functional benefits such as flood storage should be explored. As previously mentioned, restoration offers the opportunity reduce flood risk to the site and others, and therefore should be another key requirement of any future restoration at this site.

As previously mentioned earlier in our response, restoration also offers the opportunity to improve the water environment and water quality. We welcome any investigation that will help to ensure water quality at the designated Holme Pit SSSI, which is something that has been highlighted by Natural England.

East Leake
If any additional abstraction is required from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer then it is unlikely any water will be available for abstraction.

Bestwood 2 East and Bestwood 2 North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Scrooby Top North
As previously mentioned, the site is situated in an area where any new consumptive abstraction may not be available.

Woodborough Lane
As previously mentoned in our comments for policy MP6 - Brick Clay Provision, this area of land is to the north of the Dorket Head Landfill. The current landfill permit does not include this area of land. If the restoration of the site required the importation of waste to restore the site then an application to the Environment Agency would be required for either a new permit or a variation to the current landfill permit. We would like to highlight that given the history of odour complaints relating to the now closed Dorket Head landfill site, we would oppose any proposals to restore this area with putrescible or other odorous wastes.

Bantycock
Part of the site is situated in the flood zone. A FRA may be required if development is proposed within this area.