Planning Controls
Mineral workings were subject to limited planning control from 1932, but under the Town & Country Planning Act 1947 existing workings were reviewed, and planning permission was made compulsory for new ones. The planning authorities were required to maintain planning registers and plot maps, and to produce development plans, which involved detailed surveys and reports. Some records of the minerals planning sections of local authority planning departments have reached record offices. Particularly useful are the various reports on the local minerals industries, produced from about 1950 onwards. These provide general information, including some historical background, and details of individual quarries, such as their ownership, products, customers, and transport methods. These printed reports will usually be found in local libraries as well as record offices.
From 1973 onwards, each region of England and Wales has had a Regional Aggregates Working Party, which produces reports giving detail of production (on an area basis), planning submissions and permissions, and major quarry developments.