The Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015

PART 16 MINERAL EXPLORATION

Class A
Permitted development	A.	Development on any land during a period not exceeding 4 months consisting of— (a) the drilling of boreholes; (b) the carrying out of seismic surveys; or (c) the making of other excavations; for the purpose of mineral exploration, and the provision or assembly on that land or adjoining land of any structure required in connection with any of those operations.
Development not permitted	A.1	Development is not permitted by Class A if— (a) the developer has not previously notified the council in writing giving details of the location of the proposed development, target minerals, details of plant and operations and anticipated timescale; (b) any operation is within an area of special scientific interest or site of archaeological interest; (c) any explosive charge of more than 1 kilogram is used; (d) any structure assembled or provided would exceed 3 metres in height where such structure would be within 3 kilometres of an airport.
Conditions	A.2	Development is permitted by Class A subject to the following conditions— (a) the development shall be carried out in accordance with the details contained in the developer’s written notification to the council referred to in paragraph A.1(a), unless the council otherwise agrees in writing; (b) no trees on the land shall be removed, felled, lopped or topped and no other thing shall be done on the land likely to harm or damage any trees, unless the council so agrees in writing; (c) before any excavation (other than a borehole) is made, any topsoil and any subsoil shall be separately removed from the land to be excavated and stored separately from other excavated material and from each other; (d) within a period of 28 days from the cessation of operations unless the council, in a particular case, agrees otherwise in writing— (i) any borehole shall be adequately sealed; (ii) any excavation shall be filled from material from the site; (iii) any structure permitted by Class A and any waste material arising from development permitted by Class A shall be removed from the land; (iv) the surface of the land on which any operations have been carried out shall be levelled and any topsoil replaced as the uppermost layer; and (v) the land shall, so far as is practicable, be restored to its condition before the development took place.
Interpretation of Part 16	A.3	For the purposes of Part 16— “mineral exploration” means ascertaining the presence, extent or quality of any deposit of a mineral with a view to exploiting that mineral; “structure” means a building, plant or machinery or other structure.