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Class B: Other mining site works
Part 17 Class B permits specified plant, machinery, buildings, structures and erections on land used as a mine or on ancillary mining land. It can apply to an underground mine, subject to its approved-site restrictions.
The permission is tied to the operation of that mine and the handling of its minerals, products and waste. It has a prior approval requirement for detailed proposals.
England only. For other jurisdictions, see the Welsh GPDO or local legislation.
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Permitted development can avoid a full planning application, but only if the right applies and every relevant limit and condition is met. Planning Geek can check the planning history, Article 4 directions and other restrictions, and help with a lawful development certificate or prior approval where needed.
Scope and approved sites
The principal purpose must be connected with operating the mine; the treatment, preparation for sale, consumption or utilisation of minerals won or brought to the surface at that mine; or the storage or removal from the mine of those minerals, their products or derived waste materials. At an underground mine, Class B excludes works outside an approved site and imposes a deposited-plan condition on certain historically used adjoining land.
Concrete batching and mineral utilisation
Class B is not limited to extraction or preparing minerals for sale. Paragraph B.1(b)(ii) also covers their consumption or utilisation, provided they were won or brought to the surface at that mine and this is the development’s principal purpose.
In the Manton Quarry appeal, 6010548, decided on 2nd October 2026, Inspector J D Clark allowed a mobile concrete batching plant which principally used the quarry’s sand and aggregates. Approximately 10 to 15% of the mix was imported binder. Its location and use of quarry materials together supported an ancillary relationship with mining.
Clark distinguished South Glamorgan County Council v Hobbs (Quarries) Ltd [1980] 1 EGLR 121; [1980] JPL 35: the older legislation considered in that case did not include utilisation. This account follows the Inspector’s treatment of the case. It does not establish a fixed permitted percentage of imports or make every quarry batching plant permitted development. Material sources, principal purpose, the operational relationship and all other applicable limitations and conditions must be checked.
Read our report on the Manton Quarry concrete batching plant appeal for the decision and its practical implications.
Prior approval and restoration
Before the relevant building, plant or machinery is erected, installed, extended or altered, the mineral planning authority’s prior approval of its siting, design and external appearance is required. The authority’s grounds for refusal or conditions are limited to neighbourhood amenity or a reasonable alternative siting. Buildings, plant, machinery and other permitted structures must generally be removed and the land restored within 24 months after mining permanently ceases, unless the authority agrees otherwise in writing.
Relevant legislation
Read the current GPDO Schedule 2 Part 17 text together with the general limits in Article 3. The statutory extract below provides the detailed class wording; check the consolidated text for any later changes.
Class B: Other mining site works statutory wording
Class B – other developments ancillary to mining operations
Permitted development
B. The carrying out, on land used as a mine or on ancillary mining land of operations for the erection, installation, extension, rearrangement, replacement, repair or other alteration of any—
(a) plant or machinery,
(b) buildings, or
(c) structures or erections.
Development not permitted
B.1 Development is not permitted by Class B—
(a) in relation to land at an underground mine—
(i) on land which is not an approved site; or
(ii) on land to which the description in paragraph N.2(1)(b) of this Part applies, unless a plan of that land was deposited with the mineral planning authority before 5th June 1989; or
(b) if the principal purpose of the development would be any purpose other than—
(i) purposes in connection with the operation of the mine;
(ii) the treatment, preparation for sale, consumption or utilization of minerals won or brought to the surface at that mine; or
(iii) the storage or removal from the mine of such minerals, their products or waste materials derived from them.
Condition
B.2— (1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), development is permitted by Class B subject to the prior approval of the mineral planning authority of detailed proposals for the siting, design and external appearance of the building, plant or machinery proposed to be erected, installed, extended or altered.
(2) The prior approval referred to in sub-paragraph (1) may not be refused or granted subject to conditions unless the authority are satisfied that it is expedient to do so because—
(a) the proposed development would injure the amenity of the neighbourhood and modifications can reasonably be made or conditions reasonably imposed in order to avoid or reduce that injury; or
(b) the proposed development ought to be, and could reasonably be, sited elsewhere.
B.3 Development is permitted by Class B subject to the condition that before the end of the period of 24 months from the date when the mining operations have permanently ceased, or any longer period which the mineral planning authority agree in writing—
(a) all buildings, plant, machinery, structures and erections permitted by Class B is removed from the land unless the mineral planning authority have otherwise agreed in writing; and
(b) the land is restored, so far as is practicable, to its condition before the development took place or restored to such condition as may have been agreed in writing between the mineral planning authority and the developer.
Page created: 16th August 2023
Page updated: 3rd October 2026