Planning conditions for quarries are meant to be reviewed every 15 years to ensure that they comply with current environmental standards; the process is called a Review of Old Mineral Permissions or ROMP. To this end, Aggregate Industries submitted a ROMP application for the Hillhead complex at Uffculme in 2014. Following a request by DCC for an Environmental Statement, application DCC/3655/2014 was finally validated last week and is open for consultation until 24 November. The Supporting Statement from consultants David Jarvis Associates can be found below.
Hillhead (or more precisely the Houndaller part of it) is where the bulk of Devon’s permitted sand and gravel reserves lie - some 4.23 million tonnes. Some of this will be heading for Blackhill, before permission for processing there expires on 31 December 2016: DCC approves scheme to haul sand and gravel 74,000 miles to be processed in AONB.
Permission for extraction at Houndaller was due to expire at the end of 2018; DCC saw that as "Potential constraints on the maintenance of the sand and gravel landbank..." 2.5.6.
AI obviously doesn't want to lose those reserves. In September 2014, David Jarvis said "The applicant proposes to extend the timeframe for development under condition B1 from 31st December 2018 to 31st December 2033" 3.3. Two years on, AI apparently needs even more time, and now "The applicant proposes to extend the timeframe for development under condition B1 from 31st December 2018 to the 21st February 2042" 5.4.
So in 2014 when "The applicant considers that the extension of the timeframe for mineral extraction in the Houndaller Extension by 15 years is appropriate in this instance, due to the volume of mineral remaining on the site and the potential rate of extraction", in 2016 it's now "The applicant considers that the extension of the timeframe for mineral extraction in the Houndaller Extension to coincide with the development timeframe with operations over the rest of the Hillhead mineral site is appropriate in this instance, based on the volume of mineral remaining on the site and the potential rate of extraction".
How will Houndaller be worked?
AIUK intends to continue operations broadly in accordance with the previously permitted working scheme, restoration scheme and conditions attached to permission ref. 4/06/53/98/1487. Sand and gravel will continue to be extracted at the working face by hydraulic excavator and will be transported to the mobile processing plant by dump trucks travelling on internal haul roads, only crossing Clay Lane to access the mobile processing plant area. The mobile processing plant will be located to the north of the plant area (below Viridor’s weighbridge offices). Returned water from Pit C will be used in the mobile plant until such time as it is at full silt capacity. Ponds 7 and 9 will be used for water thereafter. 5.1
Is there anything of note for people living around Straitgate Farm? Well, just the usual disrespect of Planning Conditions that we’ve come to expect:
Following a monitoring visit in April 2016, it was noted in a letter dated the 11 July 2016 by Planning Officers from Devon County Council that the Houndaller Extension was not being worked in accordance with Condition B2 and B6 of ROMP permission 4/06/53/98/1487. The requirements of these conditions relate to the order of development in defined phases and approved plans. 5.15
People living around Straitgate worried that AI won’t even leave 1m of unsaturated material unquarried to protect drinking water supplies might also find the bit on groundwater interesting… the bit that starts:
Throughout the lifetime of the development, some 2 m thickness of unsaturated material will be retained beneath the quarry floor…" 7.77
