AFTER reading the article in the Echo regarding sand and gravel extraction at the Purple Haze site west of the B3081, I believe there are a couple of points that need to be clarified to readers.

Firstly, the county council is not proposing to dig anything up. As the minerals and waste planning authority, the county council has a statutory duty to make plans for the management of minerals and waste operations in the county which includes a requirement to identify sites for the provision of the necessary supply of minerals and the treatment of waste. Clearly, this process is limited to the areas where particular minerals are present.

The recent consultation is an early stage of the process that seeks to identify all the potential sites and to evaluate them technically. This also provides an opportunity for local communities to express their views which are taken into account when developing the Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan.

Each site identified in the draft plan will be subject to consultation and the plan will then be scrutinised by an independent inspector at a public examination, before the plan can be adopted. Each site will still require the operator to go through the full planning application process and each application will be judged on its merits at that time, before any mineral extraction or waste operation could start on site.

I reject any suggestion that the consultation was, in some way, kept from public attention.

We have worked hard to ensure that information about the consultation was spread as widely as possible by contact with the parish councils and district authorities both in Hampshire and neighbouring counties.

It was also publicised in local newspapers and on radio. To date we have received over 80 responses from residents in the Verwood area and I can assure you that the issues raised are being given due consideration. The Hampshire Minerals and Waste Plan, when it is finalised, will set out a framework for protecting Hampshire’s environment and supporting its communities.

It will be used to help the county council in deciding if an application for permission to extract minerals is acceptable. There will be another opportunity to comment on the draft plan at the next stage in the process, later on in the autumn.

CLLR MELVILLE KENDAL, executive member for environment and transport, Hampshire County Council