Report

The Woodsmith Project - S73 Project Amendments : Planning Statement

compared to standard approaches. Research is ongoing to demonstrate the positive environmental characteristics of polyhalite. This includes a pioneering five-year project with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an autonomous international organization within the United Nations (UN), to research the effectiveness of polyhalite on mitigating soil salinisation – a growing threat to global food security. Alongside this, market development activities continue to successfully develop the global demand for polyhalite. For the purposes of this S73 application it is clear that there have been no changes to the strong nature of either the need or the alternatives case since the original decision, to question the positive contribution these two matters make towards the justification for the development. It is also the case that the proposed changes to the detailed form of development at Woodsmith Mine and Ladycross Plantation MTS sites have no bearing on the need for the development, the scale of the production proposed or the subsequent benefits of the project, both agronomic and economic in nature. The limited extent of the amendments proposed relate more to the optimisation of the project’s design and delivery and will have no impact on the need for the scheme and its potential role in the global agronomic market. Similarly, the physical changes to the development form at Woodsmith Mine and Ladycross Plantation do not affect the findings of the previous alternative options assessments, and it remains the case that there are no viable alternatives to the scheme. No factors have in any way influenced the potential for alternatives to the Project either beyond or within the National Park boundary. In terms of the MDT, therefore, and also within the context of other development planning policy, it is the third criterion - the potential environmental impacts of the project - that represents the main consideration for this S73 planning application. Specifically, it is relevant to have regard to the potential changes in the environmental effects of the project when compared to those originally identified, to understand if the amendments proposed affect the environmental impact of the project to the extent that it would influence the exceptional circumstances that justified the approval of the original scheme.

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Environment, Landscape and Recreational Effects

The S73 application is accompanied by a Supplementary Environmental Statement (SES) that includes an additional Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This provides an assessment of the proposed amendments to the previously approved scheme, identifying any additional or different environmental effects from those previously identified as part of the original EIA process. As referred to in paragraph 1.6 of this Statement, the SES was the subject of a scoping submission by Anglo American, followed by a Scoping Opinion issued by the NYMNPA and RCBC. This consultative process focussed attention on those matters where there was the potential for the proposed amendments to the scheme to result in different environmental impacts from those identified and acknowledged at the time of determination of the application.

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The SES, therefore, includes detailed assessment of the following matters:

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1 Water Resources, Flood Risk, Drainage and Water Framework Directive

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