However, they are not like other development in that they have their own rules and guidance. For example, whilst most building development is permanent, most mines and landfill sites are temporary in that the mining and tipping stops after a temporary period and the land can be then restored to another use.
It is essential that the amount of waste being deposited in the traditional landfill sites is reduced to a minimum. Hence much more waste needs to be recovered through various forms of recycling. This is leading to the development of a wider range of facilities including waste transfer sites, specialised waste treatment facilities and energy from waste plants. These are all known as waste management facilities.
Therefore, more planning applications will be submitted for such facilities in the borough as well as the traditional landfill proposals for the residual waste that will still have to be accommodated after waste has been recycled or subjected to some form of treatment.
So far as mineral working is concerned, there are a number of surface mines or quarries in the borough, where peat, sand, gravel, clay and coal is worked. They occupy large areas of land.
The largest example is the Cutacre opencast coal mine, which has a site area of almost 300 hectares. Most of this site is in the adjoining borough of Bolton (external link) while some of it is also in Salford City (external link).
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