Kent County Council adopted mineral sites plan in September 2020

Residents across Kent now have a clearer picture of which areas could be earmarked for mineral extraction — quarrying, sand and gravel workings and the like — after Kent County Council formally adopted the Kent Mineral Sites Plan on 10 September 2020. The document allocates specific sites as suitable for mineral working, subject to planning permission, and feeds directly into how the council weighs up planning applications for mineral development.

It’s a site allocations document, which means it identifies locations rather than setting the overall policy direction. That sits in a separate document — the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan. Together they form the county’s development plan for minerals, which planners must take into account when deciding whether to approve or refuse applications.

For people living near potential extraction sites, the plan matters. If an area is allocated, it carries weight in favour of mineral development there. If it isn’t, applicants face a higher bar. So it has real consequences for communities that might otherwise find a planning application for a quarry landing on their doorstep with little warning — not an abstract concern in a county with Kent’s geography.

The sites plan replaced older site-related policies from earlier minerals plans, following what the council describes as an extensive search for suitable locations. Kent County Council holds responsibility for planning the future supply of minerals — a function that sits separately from the planning powers held by district and borough councils.

But the picture isn’t fixed. The council is currently reviewing the Mineral Sites Plan, its planning policy pages confirm, meaning the list of allocated sites could yet change.

*The council’s review of the Kent Mineral Sites Plan is ongoing, with no confirmed completion date published.*