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WQ.334/2021
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT BY DEPUTY K.F. MOREL OF ST. LAWRENCE
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 5th JULY 2021 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 12th JULY 2021
Question
Will the Minister advise whether or not he has requested that officers inform Granite Products to progress its planning application(s) for the extension of La Gigoulande Quarry into Field MY966, in advance of the draft Bridging Island Plan consultation process being completed?
Answer
The Minister for the Environment has not requested that officers inform Granite Products to progress its planning application(s) for the extension of La Gigoulande Quarry into Field MY966, in advance of the draft Bridging Island Plan consultation process being completed. The progression of a proposal to develop land through the submission of a planning application is a matter for the applicant, not the Minister.
In its submission, Promotion of an extension to the mineral extractions operations at La Gigoulande Quarry, Jersey: appraisal of the proposed southern extension (January 2021), prepared by MJCA on behalf of Granite Products in January 2021, it states that "work to prepare a planning application has commenced with the objective of submitting the planning application for the southern extension by the end of 2021." Beyond this statement, the Minister for the Environment is not aware as to what the intentions of Granite Products are.
The draft bridging Island Plan simply seeks to safeguard this site for mineral extraction based on the need to identify how the island might seek to meet its need for aggregates: it does not propose to confer any presumption of approval for this form of land use.
The development of the land involving the extraction of minerals from the site would still need to be the subject of separate planning application. Any planning application would be the subject of public consultation and could, at the Minister's discretion, be the subject of a planning inquiry. Proposals for minerals extraction would also need to be accompanied by a full and comprehensive environment impact statement which would also be subject to its own process of scoping and consultation.
Many of the issues of detail being raised, through consultation on the draft bridging Island Plan, as to the potential environmental impact and its mitigation associated with the extraction of minerals from Field MY966 can and will only be addressed through the context of a planning application and associated EIA processes.
The Minister for the Environment is, therefore, of the view that there may be public value in Granite Products submitting a planning application sooner rather than later in order that interested parties might be afforded further opportunity to be consulted on and have an opportunity to consider all of these detailed issues as part of the determination of a planning application. There is considered to be no reason why this process could not run in parallel with the current Island Plan Review.
The public consultation process for the draft bridging Island Plan closes on 12 July 2021, with the States Assembly due to debate the draft plan and associated amendments in March 2022.