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Background
In 2002 the Government introduced a tax of £1.60 on every tonne of primary aggregate sold in the UK. Somerset is a large producer of this type of aggregate, with over 9 million tonnes sold in 2007. Other counties also have major aggregate industries including Leicestershire, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire and Staffordshire, so this tax raises a considerable sum across the country; some of this revenue is diverted to the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and used to reduce the environmental footprint of aggregates production and deliver benefits in areas of aggregates extraction. For the period 2008 to 2011, five themes have been proposed to receive funding of £21M per year, subject to consultation with the organisations who deliver the fund. These themes are:
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Quarries (reduce carbon emissions from quarry operation; enhance landscapes and wildlife habitats etc.)
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Marine (promote more environmentally friendly extraction of dredged aggregates, map resources, research impact on biology etc.)
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Resource use (minimise demand for primary aggregates, promote use of recycled aggregates etc.)
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Transport (encourage use of rail or water instead of road transport, provide advice and training to reduce transport fuel consumption)
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Communities (to compensate local communities for the impact of aggregates extraction)
It is this last theme that Somerset County Council (SCC) is involved with, and the fund for Communities in Somerset is known as the Somerset Aggregates Levy Fund (SALSF). So far the SALSF has distributed over £1.7M of grants. However, the way in which this money is made available to Somerset County Council has changed. In the past, this money has come direct from Defra to the various County Councils involved in this scheme; from 2008 onwards, it will be part of the Area Based Grant, which is a pot of money supplied by central government to County Councils to be spent on the various services provided. Each Local Area Agreement (LAA) has agreed priority areas where the money is to be spent (which will be different for each County Council to reflect the needs and aspirations of the community), and national indicators to measure how well this is achieved. Projects that apply for SALSF funding will now have to meet criteria reflecting both Defra and Somerset County Council priorities; for further details please see the Guidance Notes.
The fund available to projects for Year 7 2008/9 will be about £290,000.
Reports on the fund’s activities in each year are available by clicking on the appropriate Annual Report on the ‘Publications’ link on the right.
 The Somerset Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund has been established using money allocated to Somerset County Council by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Other Agencies delivering the third party objective of the Fund are:
 
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