As of 6 April 2006 Government legislation set out in Statutory Instrument 2006 No 994 and accompanying Explanatory Memo, Leicestershire County Council as the Mineral and Waste Planning Authority, have powers to charge site operators for any monitoring visits undertaken. The Planning Group has now implemented a scheme whereby sites with either a mineral extraction, or landfill interest will be charged for relevant monitoring visits. The current national fee that can be charged per monitoring visit is £331 for an active site, or partly an active site and partly an inactive site, and £110 for sites that are inactive or dormant. These fees are likely to be nationally reviewed during 2007. Other waste management sites that do not contain an element of mineral extraction or landfill are not currently charged for monitoring visits.

Leicestershire County Council therefore have reviewed the monitoring procedures to ensure that our current systems and procedures for monitoring sites are adapted to achieve good practice, as summarised in section 3 of the draft guidance. Views were sought from representatives of the Minerals and Waste Industry and it was made clear that any system of charging for monitoring must be implemented in an equitable and transparent way. The Authority will endeavor to be consistent in its approach in implementing the new regulations so that all operators are treated equally and difficult or recalcitrant operators are not ‘let off the hook’ by penalising easy targets.

The Planning Group aim to visit every operational site in accordance with the schedule of visits established at the start of each year. Details of the total number of sites we monitor, and the frequency of visits can be found on the Monitoring and Enforcement Reports

The definitions of mining and landfill sites have been drafted so that, in each case, an area of land can be defined which, irrespective of the number of planning permissions which relate to it, is worked as a single site, and so will be subject to monitoring visits for which a charge will be made.

In most cases it should be clear from the planning history of the development what constitutes a site. Ultimately it is for the Mineral and Waste Planning Authority to define the area of the site and the permissions, permitted development rights and any planning obligations including section 106 agreements, to be monitored, having agreed with the operator(s) the most appropriate and efficient  aggregation of areas,  permissions and agreements.

It is unlikely that there will be sites to be monitored which benefit only from mineral or waste permitted development rights, which fall within the definitions of mineral and landfill permissions in paragraphs 5 and 6 of the guidance. In the case of waste deposited using Part VI agricultural permitted development rights, these are

likely to be considered as a recovery operation and would not be caught by the definition of landfill in the fees regime. However, there are exceptions and each case will be assessed on its own merits.

Each active site is subject to a maximum of 8 visits per annum for which a fee is payable. Authorities can of course make further visits but no fee would be payable. Generally, where active sites are compliant with planning conditions there should be no more than 4 visits per year. Over time, as monitoring, according to good practice becomes established, and standards rise, the percentage of sites with visits of 4 or more will be reassessed. Where we consider it appropriate e.g. in the case of small sites with marginal volumes being extracted or deposited each year, then fewer site visits per annum may be agreed. When determining the number of visits required for the site, the Planning Officer will take into account the current standard of operator compliance with the relevant planning permissions.

Leicestershire County Council as the Minerals and Waste Planning Authority has ultimate responsibility for setting the number of visits required to ensure compliance with planning consents. If the operator considers that it has been subjected to an excessive number of visits, their recourse would be to follow the Authorities Corporate Complaints Procedure. Should the operator be unhappy with the Authorities determination, they may ask the local government ombudsman to investigate.