Section 38 (6) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 states that
“if regard is to be had to the development plan, for the purpose of any determination to be made under the planning Acts, the determination must be made in accordance with the plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.”
This means that applications will be decided by mineral planning authorities, in accordance with their minerals development plan document, but taking into account other factors, such as Government policy set out in Minerals Policy Statement 1 “Planning and Minerals” and other relevant considerations.