Minerals and waste policy

As minerals and waste planning authority, Dorset County Council is responsible for the preparation of minerals and waste planning documents for Bournemouth Borough Council, Dorset and the Borough of Poole.

The Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Structure Plan

The county council was formerly responsible for the preparation of the structure plan. This plan sets out a broad policy framework for the development of land across the county, including the area of Bournemouth and Poole unitary authorities, up to the year 2011.  The plan was adopted in 2001.

Structure Plan Saved Policies

Some of the policies of the structure plan are still being used to guide development, these are known as 'saved policies'. These are listed in the Dorset structure plan schedule (PDF, 55kb) (opens in a new window)

The saved policies have been approved by the Secretary of State, although as is made clear in the attached letter, not all the policies that should have been saved were listed by the government in the formal notification.

The provisions for the saving of structure plan or other policies that form part of the development plan are given in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, Schedule 8, Transitional Provisions.

Using these powers, in September 2007 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government issued a direction that those policies in the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole (BDP) Structure Plan which were contained in the Schedule to the direction, should be saved.

The provisions of the Act state that the transition period during which a saved policy would continue to be saved would come to an end either at the end of three years or when a new policy expressly replaces it, whichever comes first. However, the Secretary of State directed that in the case of the BDP Structure Plan the first of the above conditions does not apply and as such the policies remain saved until replaced by new policies. So the question of expiry does not apply to the structure plan policies.

The expectation was that the 'new policies' to replace the saved BDP Structure Plan policies would be those of the SW Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). However, the draft RSS never reached the stage of replacing existing Regional Planning Guidance (RPG10), (pdf, 971kb) (opens in a new window) which continues to represent the regional spatial strategy. As such RPG10 and the saved Structure Plan policies continue to form part of the development plan.

The Localism Bill proposes in addition to the abolition of regional strategies, to revoke any direction given by the Secretary of State to preserve development plan policies contained in a structure plan. As such, if the Localism Bill is enacted in its present form the saved policies of the Structure Plan will be revoked at that time. Until then the BDP Structure Plan saved policies remain part of the development plan.

On revocation of the saved structure plan policies (and of the regional strategy) the statutory development plan would comprise any saved local plan policies and adopted development plan documents.

For further information contact Mike Garrity or Malcolm Lewis

• Team Leader - Planning Policy
  Name: Mr Mike Garrity
  Email: m.garrity@dorsetcc.gov.uk
  Tel: 01305 221826
  Full details for Mr Mike Garrity
• Principal Planning Officer - Strategic Planning
  Name: Malcolm Lewis
  Email: m.t.lewis@dorsetcc.gov.uk
  Tel: 01305 224255
  Full details for Malcolm Lewis