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Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan (KMWLP)

The KMWLP and the Kent Mineral Sites Plan form the Development Plan for the purposes of determining planning applications.

The current adopted Minerals and Waste Local Plan is the Early Partial Review of 2020 (PDF, 7.2 MB) and the Kent Mineral Sites Plan 2020 (PDF, 1.7 MB).

The superseded adopted 2016 local plan, our current 2020 plan and our emerging work which seeks to take the strategy to 2039 are detailed below:

Read more about our sites plan

The Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2013 to 2030 (KMWLP) was adopted in July 2016 and set out the vision and strategy for waste management and mineral provision up until the year 2030. It also contains a number of development management policies for evaluating minerals and waste planning applications.

Following the adoption of the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2013 to 2030 (KMWLP) in July 2016, further assessments suggested that the level of waste management capacity required to maintain net self-sufficiency was different to what was originally assessed.

We therefore undertook an Early Partial Review (EPR) of the 2016 KMWLP to amend several of the policies relating to waste management. This was to ensure that Kent benefited from an up-to-date strategy for waste management capacity. It also confirmed that a Waste Sites Plan was not needed.

As part of the review work, we also made the policies relating to minerals and waste safeguarding clearer to improve their effectiveness when used in practice.

In October 2019, the Early Partial Review Plan was subject to independent examination by planning inspector Nicholas Palmer BA (Hons) BPI MRTPI. His report concluded that the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan Early Partial Review and the Kent Mineral Sites Plan provide an appropriate basis for the planning of minerals and waste development in Kent, provided that a number of modifications were made to them.

You can read the report and proposed plan modifications below:

In September 2020, the KMWLP as amended by the Early Partial Review was adopted by the county council at Full Council committee.

Mineral safeguarding maps

The safeguarding of mineral resources and waste management and mineral infrastructure is an important part of the planning strategy. It plays a key role in delivering sustainable development. The adopted local plan includes a number of safeguarding maps identifying safeguarded wharves and rail transportation depots, as well as maps showing safeguarded economic mineral deposits within the county.

The maps below accompany policy CSM 5:

Safeguarding Supplementary Planning Document

To assist in interpretation of minerals and waste safeguarding policies, we have produced a Safeguarding Supplementary Planning Document (PDF, 2.2 MB) which was adopted in March 2021.

Read the adoption statement (PDF, 156.1 KB).

We are required to review the Kent Mineral and Waste Local Plan every 5 years. This is to ensure that the policies remain relevant, conform to national policy and guidance and satisfactorily address the needs of the local community. The 5-year review commenced in 2021 and identified the need for a number of changes to policy and supporting text to reflect local and national policy changes since 2016.

Read the report of this assessment (PDF, 2.1 MB). The proposed changes have been subject to an initial consultation with key stakeholders followed by 4 public consultations since 2021. Details are available on our consultation website (Let's Talk Kent).

Our draft Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2024-39 was submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination on 17 May 2024.

The purpose of the examination is to assess whether the plan is ‘sound’. This includes deciding whether it meets the four tests of ‘soundness’ set out in national planning policy, which are that the plan is:

  • positively prepared
  • justified
  • effective
  • consistent with national policy.

There are also some specific legal requirements which each plan must meet, for example in relation to consultation.

Find out more about the examination of the draft local plan, including

  • the submission documents
  • the evidence base and background documents
  • latest updates.