According to Alan Pollock, an acknowledged expert in Mineral Planning Policy this document arose after much disquiet being expressed in the UK over the impact of opencast mining prior to the 1997 General Election as the following explains:

" 1.22 The single most important influence to the development of NPPG16 was Labour’s
Ten point plan for opencasting which was published in December 1996 and formed part of
the future government’s election manifesto. Its origins were found in an increasingly hostile
attitude to opencast mining by the Labour Party following the 1992 General Election. The
commitments in this plan were stated as “ The incoming Labour Government will change the
law and practice to:

(1) Prohibit opencast working except where it is of benefit to the local community and
local environment – for example, by clearing up an area of dereliction or contaminated land.

(2) Allow the rejection of planning applications for opencasting where they may
prejudice efforts to attract other investment in the locality.

(3) Restrict repeated applications for the development of broadly similar sites or
extensions of existing workings.
(4) Treat applications for extensions of existing workings as entirely new applications.

(5) Apply Environmental Assessment procedures to existing as well as future opencast
workings.

(6) Require future planning consents for opencast workings to set more strict and
enforceable environmental standards.

(7) Set strict and short time limits, whether for starting preparatory work or starting or
ending coal extraction.

(8) Tighten the rules to secure prompt and full restoration of sites and ensure that funds
to do this are available from the operators.

(9) Subject proposed and existing opencast workings in areas covered by Interim
Development Orders to normal planning and environmental controls.

(10) Reduce the reliance on opencast coal as part of overall energy policy.”

1.23 Following the General Election, in May 1997 the new Government announced the
intention to review national planning policy guidance in relation to opencast development. In
August 1997, the Scottish Office Development Department Planning Division issued a
Consultation Paper – Opencast Coal – Review of Planning Policy in Scotland. Separate
consultations were undertaken for England and Wales. The Consultation Paper examined
each of the ten manifesto commitments providing commentary, proposals and issues, raised
in the form of questions for consideration in the consultation process.

1.24 While it was suggested that even at this consultative stage there was some “watering
down” of the pre-election commitments, in reality, there was a need to translate political
aspirations into workable planning policies and procedures. This is illustrated, for example,
by reference to the proposed application of Environmental Assessment procedures to existing
workings. These procedures (EIA) are designed for pre development assessment, and to seek
to apply them retrospectively would not serve any useful purpose (environmental audits
being the appropriate means available), but the only effect would be to open the prospects for
financial compensation to developers for modification to an existing permitted working
rights.

1.25 Based on the responses to the 1997 consultation paper, and a White Paper on the
Conclusions of the Review of Energy Sources for Power Generation published by the
Department of Trade and Industry (1998), the Scottish Office Development Department
issued new draft guidance in October 1998. This was in the form of a proposed Annex A to
NPPG4. The Annex replaced the previous guidance relating to coal contained in paragraphs
74 – 78 of NPPG4."