What happens next

Before Bintree Woods is handed over for mineral extraction four stages must be completed.

1. The ‘Mineral Site Allocations: Issues and Options’ document was published by Norfolk County Council in February 2008.This listed 104 possible sites for mineral extraction. Public consultation on this (and the parallel waste site document, which listed 64 possible waste sites) finished in April 2008
2. In mid-2009 these sites will be narrowed down to two shorter lists of preferred options. These are the sites which NCC has decided it wishes to use.
3. These preferred options form the basis of a futher document, the ‘Submission Plan’. This will be discussed at an ‘Examination in Public’. At this stage planning permissions are sought.
4. NCC’s ‘Adopted Plan’ will then form the strategy for the county’s mineral extraction and waste landfill.

• The ideal outcome would be for the woods to be excluded from the lists of preferred options published next summer so it is vital we keep up the pressure over the next few months.
• Since the spring a number of sites have been withdrawn by those who proposed them, including the other Forestry Commission sites in the county.
• The number of responses on the NCC website expressing concern over the Bintree/Billingford sites (834 under ‘landscape’, 1,221 under ‘other’ is far higher than for other similar sites. If public consultation means anything this should ensure that NCC excludes our sites from the preferred options. However, there is absolutely no guarantee this will happen and we have to assume the worst.