This Plan, which will cause great damage to Tandridge's Green Belt, is unchanged despite new advice from the coalition government that it intends to rapidly abolish the South East Plan and the targets in it on which the Minerals Plan is based.
It's also despite the comments of SCC's leader, Dr Andrew Povey, on television in February when he blamed the Labour government for Surrey's Minerals Plan.
He said: - It is actually the government that says that we have to have a minerals plan and I'm sorry they are not here today to defend it ''..and not only do they say we have to have a plan but they set out the numbers of tonnes of sand and aggregates that we have to extract from within Surrey. It's not really within our power to stop that'
When asked what he thought of David Cameron's plans if he were elected at the May election, Dr Povey commented:
'I suspect that what he's saying is that instead of the government saying we have to have a minerals plan and have to accept a certain volume of minerals, that would be for local authorities to decide. That would be a valuable freedom.'
Full interview in Latest News Archive (21.02.10 - The Politics Show)
The government has now done just that and given SCC the freedom to revise the Plan and to redetermine the volume of minerals to be recovered, but they are refusing to do so.
This was made clear by SCC's Cabinet member for Environment, Dr Lynne Hack, speaking on The Politics Show on 11 July (interview in Latest News Archive 12.07.10) You'll note the contrast between what SCC's leader said in February and what SCC are now saying.
Dr Hack spoke of "sharing the pain". We would point out that Oxted already has a lot of pain with the Chalkpit Quarry used by huge, uncontrolled numbers of HGVs dumping waste, resulting in extreme road safety dangers. They are uncontrolled because, when SCC gave planning permission, they failed to attach any condition limiting lorry numbers.
The new government has made a big point about protecting the Green Belt and it seems a shame that such a predominantly Conservative council appear to have little regard for this and are sticking to the old government's plan. As well as Oxted, the Plan will destroy much Green Belt land in nearby villages and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Bletchingley.
The County Council are targeting the Oxted Sandpit in Barrow Green Road for extension for further extraction of sand. They also want to make it an aggregates recycling centre for construction and development waste. This waste would be brought in to the site by HGV where it would either be dumped as landfill, or recycled and driven away again - by HGV. This is in addition to the Chalkpit operation.
We are told by minerals experts the recycling centre is an alarming prospect because these are invariably noisy and dirty and involve lots of lorries. Also, once in place they stay in place, thereby delaying restoration of the site for a long time.
The Minerals Plan examination is due to start on 14 September at SCC in Kingston. The Group intends to take part in the examination with the aim of persuading the Inspector that the Plan is seriously flawed and should be rejected as 'unsound'.
To read details of the Surrey Minerals Plan click here
