Draft Minerals Local Plan

  Latest News: On Thursday 23 October 2014 the 3 Milton Keynes Councillors for Olney Ward are hosting a Drop-in Session (from 6pm) followed by a Public Meeting (at 7.30pm) at Sherington CE School. Everyone is welcome. Note change of date and venue

• Milton Keynes Council is currently compiling its Minerals Policy covering the period from 2016 onwards. It has produced a Draft Local Plan which has now been published for public consultation from 13 August to 5 November 2014. Details of the consultation are on the Milton Keynes Council's web site (see the links in the right hand column).
   
• The public may comment online on the MKC web site, by email or by post.
   
• The available sand and gravel deposits in this area are primarily located along the river banks, including the River Ouse in and near Sherington. Various sites in the local area have already been evaluated, leading to two sites in Lathbury (plus others further away) being selected for mineral extraction. One is the Lathbury bank of the river from Sherington Bridge to the bridge near End Farm. The other is at Quarry Hall Farm in Lathbury. In both cases, the lorries transporting the materials will be routed over Sherington Bridge and up Chicheley Hill to the Newport Pagnell bypass.
   
• Maps showing these two sites, plus four others (including two in Sherington itself), are given on the Proposed Sites page.
   
• If convincing arguments are put forward, the choice of preferred site may change, as may other aspects of the overall Policy. If you wish to comment, you are advised to study the full Draft Local Plan document, plus the 13 other supporting documents which give the rationale and detailed evauations behind the choices that have been made so far. These include the assessments of the other sites, including aspects such as flooding and wild life. You are also advised to cross-reference your comments to the individual Policies. General NIMBY-type complaints are unlikely to carry much weight. Unless you wish to query the estimates of the quantity of minerals required in future years, the minerals will have to come from somewhere and this Plan is concerned with determining the best (or least evil) way of achieving that.