Minerals and Waste Plan

The Minerals and Waste Plan will allocate sites and areas to sustainably meet the identified requirements for the provision of minerals and the management of waste. It will also set out strategic and detailed policies to guide decisions on minerals and waste planning applications.

Once adopted, it will be part of the statutory development plan alongside the Local Plan Strategy (adopted 2017), the Site Allocations and Development Policies Document (adopted December 2022) and completed Neighbourhood Plans.

The  MWP will cover the period 2021-2041 and will apply to the whole of Cheshire East, excluding the area within the Peak District National Park. Once adopted, it will replace all of the saved policies in the Cheshire Minerals Plan (adopted 1999) and the Cheshire Waste Plan (adopted 2007) plus LPS policies SE 10 ‘Sustainable provision of minerals’ and SE 11 ‘Sustainable management of waste’.

Draft Minerals and Waste Plan

We consulted on the Draft Minerals and Waste Plan (PDF, 3.6MB) and supporting documents between 9 November and 21 December 2022. At the same time, we carried out a ‘call for sites’ to invite submissions of sites or areas that may be suitable for potential allocation for minerals or waste uses.

We are currently considering all the responses received and the next steps for the MWP. Although the consultation has now closed, you can still view the consultation documents and responses on our consultation portal:

View the Minerals and Waste Plan consultations

We also produced a Minerals and Waste Plan draft policies map, which shows the geographical extent of the draft MWP policies alongside the adopted LPS  and SADPD policies. The quick guide to the draft policies map (PDF, 268KB) explains the different features of the interactive map and the designations shown.

Evidence base

The MWP is supported by an up-to-date, relevant and proportionate evidence base, including information on the nature and extent of minerals in the borough and the quantities of waste produced and managed.

• Local aggregate assessments
• Cheshire sand study (PDF, 4.4MB)
• Waste needs assessment and refresh 
• Background paper: Requirement and forecasting of aggregate need in Cheshire East (PDF, 217KB)
• Site selection methodology report (PDF, 819KB)
• Draft mineral site selection report (PDF, 18.5MB)
• Draft waste site selection report (PDF, 3.3MB)
• Interim Sustainability Appraisal (PDF, 4.7MB) plus non-technical summary (PDF, 661KB)
• Draft MWP Habitats Regulations Assessment (PDF, 2.0MB)
• Minerals and waste issues paper (PDF, 10.5MB) and issues paper report of consultation (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Call for sites 2014 Minerals sites and areas assessment (PDF, 612KB) plus appendices:
  
  • Appendix 1: Appraisal methodology (PDF, 863KB)
  • Appendix 2a: Sites and areas assessments (PDF, 4.0MB)
  • Appendix 2b: Sites and areas maps (PDF, 9.0MB)
  • Appendix 3: Safeguarding areas maps (PDF, 7.0MB)
• Municipal waste management strategy (PDF, 2.4MB)
• BGS mineral resources report for Cheshire and BGS mineral resources map for Cheshire
• BGS mineral planning factsheets
• National Planning Policy Framework
• National Planning Policy for Waste
• Minerals Planning Practice Guidance

Previous stages

We consulted on a Mineral and Waste Issues paper in April 2017, as well as call for sites exercises in 2014 and 2017. The issues paper, report of consultation and site assessments are available in the evidence base above.

Page last reviewed: 31 October 2023