Draft Minerals and Waste Plan

The council has been working to prepare a new minerals and waste plan, to allocate sites and areas for the provision of minerals and the management of waste, and to prepare policies to guide decisions on minerals and waste planning applications.

Work is also now underway to prepare a new single local plan, considering all types of development, and the meeting of the Environment and Communities Committee on 27 March 2025 resolved to incorporate minerals and waste matters within the council's new local plan.

The draft minerals and waste plan will no longer be taken forward as a separate plan, and work carried out to date will be considered and incorporated into the new single local plan. Information about the previous consultations and minerals and waste evidence base remains available for information below.

Draft Minerals and Waste Plan consultation

We consulted on the Draft Minerals and Waste Plan (PDF, 3.7MB) 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.

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  was 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.