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North Wales Planning Service (Minerals and Waste)

The North Wales Planning Service provides planning expertise to Local Planning Authorities across North Wales and is hosted by Flintshire County Council. The planning service specialises in minerals and waste but also handles renewable development, low carbon and carbon capture and storage project, and major infrastructure developments on behalf of its partner location authorities. 

The service covers eight local planning authority areas: 

  • Anglesey County Council
  • Conwy County Borough Council
  • Cyngor Gwynedd
  • Eryri National Park
  • Flintshire County Council (Host Authority)
  • Denbighshire County Council
  • Wrexham County Borough Council
  • Powys County Council (Northern area)

The shared service can be contacted at mineralsandwaste@NorthWalesPlanning.wales

The service agreement is underpinned by a service contract.

Core Functions of the Service

Core functions of the service include:

  • Drafting pre-application advice
  • Handling planning applications (including taking planning applications to planning committee)
  • Carrying out chargeable site monitoring and producing monitoring reports, 
  • Producing Environmental Impact Assessment screening and scoping recommendations
  • Handling the Review of Old Mineral Permissions (ROMPs)
  • Conducting enforcement investigations/evidence gathering 
  • Drafting of relevant enforcement notices.
  • Providing policy input to Local Development Plan (LDP) process

The service provides expertise for mineral and waste development but is also equipped to handle other non-minerals and waste work such as; Renewable Energy projects, Developments of National Significant (DNS), Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP), and the decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plants.

North Wales Regional Aggregate Working Party (NWRAWP)

The NWRAWP is a technical working group with membership drawn from officers of the 7 Mineral Planning Authorities*, and representatives of the Mineral Products Association, British Aggregates Association, Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Government, and British Geological Survey.

Andrew Farrow, Chief Officer, Planning, Environment and Economy for Flintshire County Council is the Chairman of the NWRAWP and Hannah Parish, Service Manager of the North Wales Shared Minerals and Waste Planning Service is the Technical Secretary of the NWRAWP.

An annual report is produced in order to provide data and information of sales, output and need across the region. Copies of these reports are available from the North Wales Regional Aggregates Working Party website. Alternatively, they are available on request, please email the Shared Service. 

* Anglesey County Council, Conwy County Borough Council, Cyngor Gwynedd, Eryri National Park, Flintshire County Council, Denbighshire County Council, and Wrexham County Borough Council

Chargeable Site Monitoring of Minerals and Waste Sites

The North Wales Planning Service endeavour to pursue and foster good working relationships with relevant stakeholders following the grant of planning permission. The monitoring of sites can avoid problems developing and be a positive educator of good practice. Through site monitoring we seek to:

  • identify potential problems early and avoid them developing
  • minimise the need to resort to enforcement or other action
  • review planning decisions and agreements made with the county council
  • ensure secured mitigation measures for the development are carried out
  • facilitate regular liaison and dialogue between operators, the public/local community representatives and the council officers.

Government regulations allow the council to charge a fee for conditions monitoring when they relate directly to the winning and working of mineral permissions or directly to landfilling permissions.

Officers determine the target number of visits for each site on a “risk assessment” basis for each site drawing on the following points:

  • sensitivity of location
  • size and type of development
  • number and complexity of planning conditions
  • number of issues requiring monitoring input
  • the stage and pace of development
  • breaches of planning control that are or have been observed
  • complaints received for the site

There is an opportunity for operators to enter into discussions on how the council has reached its decision for the number of visits scheduled per year. Having set a target for the number of visits per annum, officers keep the frequency of actual visits under review and adjust the frequency, taking into account the above points.

Reporting a breach of planning control (Minerals and Waste Development)

If you suspect that there is a breach of condition occurring, or that unauthorised development mineral is happening on a site near you, please contact your relevant local planning authority. Cases relevant to the shared service will be passed to the service as appropriate for review / investigation.