Energy and Climate Change CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (SEV 11)
1. The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA) is the representative trade organisation for the British marine aggregate sector and a constituent body of the wider Mineral Products Association. The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and silica sand industries. With the recent addition of The British Precast Concrete Federation (BPCF) and the British Association of Reinforcement (BAR), it has a growing membership of 450 companies and is the sectoral voice for mineral products. MPA membership is made up of the vast majority of independent SME companies throughout the UK, as well as the nine major international and global companies. It covers 100% of GB cement production, 90% of aggregates production, 95% of asphalt and ready-mixed concrete production and 70% of precast concrete production. Each year the industry supplies £9 billion of materials and services to the £120 billion construction and other sectors. Industry production represents the largest materials flow in the UK economy and is also one of the largest manufacturing sectors. BMAPA represents 11 member companies of MPA who collectively produce around 90% of the 20 million tonnes (Mt) of marine sand and gravel dredged from licensed areas in the waters around England and Wales each year.
Background
2. The Marine Policy Statement 2011 (MPS 2011) recognises that the UK has some of the best marine aggregate resources in the world. Paragraph 3.5.1 states that “Marine sand and gravel makes a crucial contribution to meeting the nation’s demand for construction aggregate materials, essential for the development of our built environment. They are particularly important in England, accounting for 38% of the total regional demand for sand and gravel in the South East (80% in London), 46% in the North East and 22% in the North West. South Wales is also highly dependent on marine-dredged sand, which meets more than 80% of the demand…”. In this respect, marine aggregate supplies play a key role in supporting the delivery of various Government policies, including Sustainable Communities, the regeneration of Thames Gateway and the 2012 Olympic Games.
3. The MPS 2011 acknowledges the strategic roles played by marine dredged sand and gravel resources in supplying large scale coast defence and beach replenishment projects—over 25 Mt being used for this purpose since the mid 1990’s. With the growing threats posed by sea level rise and increased storminess, the use of marine sand and gravel for coast protection purposes will become increasingly important.
4. The MPS 2011 also recognises marine sand and gravel resources can be expected to play a key role in supporting the successful delivery of major coastal infrastructure projects associated with Government policies related to energy security and climate change, such as nuclear new builds, port developments and renewable energy. The coastal location of many of these developments means that the sector is ideally placed to supply the large volumes of construction aggregate and fill material that will be required.
5. In all cases, the marine aggregate sector is dependant upon identifying and licensing economically viable sand and gravel deposits to secure sufficient reserves to maintain long term supply to existing and well established markets. The location of such deposits is extremely localised around the waters of England and Wales, restricted to their geological distribution and their geographical position related to the markets location.
6. At present 1,274km2 of seabed is licensed for marine aggregate extraction, of which around 114km2 is dredged in a typical year. This represents around 0.15% and 0.016% of the total UK continental shelf area (867,000km2) respectively. A further 1,931 km2 of seabed is currently under exclusive option agreement with The Crown Estate. In this respect, the marine aggregate sector is responsible for managing a significant area of the UK seabed.
7. This response sets out some initial views of the British marine aggregate sector on the potential impacts and implications of the proposed Cardiff-Weston Barrage tidal power development in the Severn Estuary.
Marine aggregates in the Bristol Channel
8. At present, five companies are involved in marine aggregate production operations in the Bristol Channel: British Dredging Ltd (CEMEX UK Marine Ltd), Hanson Aggregates Marine Ltd, Llanelli Sand Dredging Ltd, Severn Sands Ltd and Tarmac Marine Dredging Ltd. At any one time there can be up to five marine aggregate dredgers operating in the region.
9. Although the overall production of marine aggregates from the Bristol Channel may appear relatively small (1.232 Mt in 2011) when compared to the overall national production (19.115 Mt), the South West region is particularly dependant upon marine aggregate supplies for natural sand to support both the maintenance and development of the built environment. It should be noted that the current levels of production very much reflect the ongoing economic downturn, being reduced by over 30% from the 10 year peak production that took place in 2007 (1.769 Mt).
10. While there are extensive sources of coarse aggregate (crushed rock), supplies of natural fine aggregate (sand) from terrestrial sources are extremely limited in South Wales. As a consequence marine dredged sand fulfils a strategically important role in underpinning the construction activity taking place in this region, with around 0.6Mt being landed from Crown Estate licence areas in 2011 (1.071 Mt in 2007). The British Geological Survey report that marine dredged sand accounts for 85% of the market for concreting sand and 97% of the building sand supply with no realistic alternatives for either1. Landings of marine sand currently occur at Pembroke, Burry Port, Swansea, Port Talbot, Cardiff and Newport. Further landings from licence areas outside of the control of The Crown Estate occur at Newport and Chepstow, which are believed to account for a further 150,000 tonnes.
11. The strategic importance of marine aggregate supplies to South Wales are recognised in the Welsh Assembly Government’s minerals policy statement (Minerals Technical Advisory Note 1, March 2004)) together with the Interim Marine Aggregates Dredging Policy (November 2004), both of which acknowledge the importance of marine supplies to the region and the need for these to be maintained.
12. Marine landings to South West England are smaller, 0.409 Mt in 2011 (0.721 Mt in 2007), but no less important at a local scale, with 0.332 Mt being landed at Avonmouth alone (0.618 Mt in 2007). Further landing points include Bridgewater and Appledore.
13. The Department for Communities and Local Government publishes National and regional guidelines for aggregates provision in England over a 20 year planning horizon. This information supports the Managed Aggregate Supply System, which sits within the National Planning Policy Framework 2012. The latest guideline figures were published by DCLG in 2009, and include an assumption that over the period 2005 to 2020, marine sand and gravel will contribute 12 Mt to the construction aggregate production of the South West region—all of which would be delivered through the Bristol Channel.
14. For the Bristol Channel region as a whole, marine aggregate supplies offer significant environmental advantages by being able to deliver large volumes of a low cost, bulk construction material very close to the point of demand. The distribution of the landing points for marine aggregates across the region reflect the location of port infrastructure, which in turn is closely associated with the major coastal urban areas. This relationship between port and urban coastal hinterland significantly reduces the distance over which the material has to be transported by road to reach its point of end-use.
15. The large tidal range of the region means that access to landing points is largely constrained to high water. The current fleet of dredgers operating in the region have therefore been specifically designed for dredging relatively shallow water in order to supply tidally restricted wharves. To maintain vessel productivity and meet market supply demands, a typical production cycle will therefore see cargoes being loaded at low water and discharged at high water, with a 12 hour turnaround between cargoes (i.e. two cargoes being dredged and landed each day).
Implications of the Cardiff-Weston Barrage
16. Marine aggregate landings in the Severn Estuary region generate turnover in excess of £10 million per annum, based on the product value at first point of landing. However, as aggregates lie at the beginning of a supply chain that supports the manufacture of a range of value-added products including concrete products and ready-mixed concrete, this baseline value considerably underplays the economic significance of the sector’s contribution in underpinning wider construction output across the region—particularly given the particular reliance in South Wales.
17. As far as the proposed Cardiff-Weston Barrage that is being considered, there are two main issues that need to be taken into account from a marine aggregate perspective.
Access to licence/landing port
18. The first concerns the degree to which any barrage proposal would constrain the ability of the marine aggregate industry to access licensed reserves or supply their principle markets. As outlined in paragraph 15, the cost model of the industry is based around small vessels supplying tidally constrained ports through a 12 hour cycle. As this cycle is determined by high water times, there is very little flexibility in the timing of these operations. If a vessel misses a tide, the vessels productivity is effectively halved.
19. The Cardiff-Weston Barrage proposal would separate the principle licensed reserves (including the production licence areas at Holm Sands, Culver Sands and Nobel Bank and the Outer Bristol Channel application area) from the principle landing points in the upper estuary, namely Cardiff, Newport and Avonmouth. These three ports collectively receive around two thirds of the marine sand production landed in the region. Inevitably, vessels transiting between the open sea and the waters confined by a barrage would be subject to significant delays in having to lock between the two water bodies. While there may be some mitigation derived through extended tidal windows to access ports within the confined water body in the upper estuary, the implications to the marine aggregate sector in terms of lost productivity and the impact on the current business models in place will have to be considered in detail. This is particularly important given the construction market’s reliance on marine sand, and the absence of any realistic alternative products to replace it.
20. The barrage proposal could also potentially constrain access to existing marine aggregate interests, both licensed and under application, through the construction works and through alterations to the tidal range in the upper estuary which may constrain safe access to licensed areas. The precise implications of these issues remain unclear and also need to be considered.
21. Finally, the hydrodynamic implications of the barrage proposals could have a significant effect upon the various marine sand deposits that are permitted/under application for marine aggregate extraction—both offshore and in the waters confined by a barrage. Significant changes to flow rates and/or directions could see these deposits being adversely affected, either through increased flow resulting in the deposits being eroded and removed through scour or through reduced flow resulting in the deposition of fine grained sediments unsuitable for construction aggregate as over burden.
Construction aggregate supply
22. The volume of construction aggregate required to support any barrage development will be significant, but will also be subject to the same constraints over the availability of aggregate supply in the region as other construction projects. While resources of coarse marine aggregate (gravel) are limited in the Bristol Channel region, there are substantial volumes of marine sand available which could be suitable for both fill and general construction purposes. The ability to deliver large volumes of a low cost, bulk material directly to site could make marine dredged sand a potentially attractive option for the fine aggregate requirements of any construction works that take place.
23. In terms of the potential role for marine aggregate resources, there are useful parallels that can be drawn on elsewhere. As one example, the Cardiff Bay Barrage used over 2.5 Mt of marine sand, dredged from a licence area permitted specifically to support the projects construction. While in the Netherlands, three borrow pits were permitted to source marine sand to support the extension of Rotterdam harbour, Maasvlakte 2. This project, which is currently ongoing, has already seen over 200 million m3 of sand being dredged from dedicated licence areas in the southern North Sea in order to create new land area for the port development. In one seven day period alone during 2011, over three million m3 was dredged and relocated—equivalent to 4.5 Mt.
24. Given the significant volumes of sand likely to be required to provide both the construction aggregate and fill associated with a barrage project, the current reserve permitted within existing licensed areas would not be sufficient to supply the additional volumes required on top of the baseline market demand requirements for the region as a whole. In 2011, the maximum permitted offtake from Crown Estate licensed areas in the Bristol Channel region was 3.249 Mt, of which 1.232 Mt was actually dredged.
25. Critically, we do not consider there to be a shortage of marine sand resource within the Bristol Channel region to support such a project. However, to realise the significant volumes that are likely to be required for any major construction effort, either the permitted offtakes from existing licence areas would have to be substantially increased or new areas permitted for extraction. In both cases, new Marine Licences for the extraction of marine minerals would have to be sought. Based on recent experiences in the region, the timescale for achieving new Marine Licences can be expected to take three years as an absolute minimum. Therefore it is important that sufficient lead time is scheduled into any construction plan.
November 2012
1 Highley, DE et al. 2007. The strategic importance of the marine aggregate industry to the UK. British Geological Survey Research Report, OR/07/019. ISBN 978 0 85272 607 5