... again.
Aggregate Industries first submitted a planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm back in June 2015. Almost three years on there are still delays.
Doesn’t that speak volumes about the merits of wrecking an East Devon Farm and hauling its spoils 23 miles away for processing?
It was only in January of this year that AI told DCC it was:
But, as we said at the time, it was just wishful thinking. Only last month the EA was still requesting information from AI on groundwater - an important subject for more than 100 people who rely on the site for their drinking water.
AI’s confidence in meeting timetables is obviously no better than its confidence in being able to define the maximum water table - the proposed depth of any extraction - and thereby not harm those drinking water supplies. Whilst AI's water consultants boasted that:
Monitoring over the exceptionally wet winters of 2013 and 2014 allow this surface to be defined with confidence
we now find that borehole readings in the unexceptional winter of 2018 puts the base of any quarry at Straitgate 1M BELOW WATER.
So much for confidence.
Of course, you might understand if it had been just one delay, but it hasn’t. Just in the last few months we’ve posted: More delays to come, AI’s application for Straitgate Farm lurches from one delay to another, and AI requests deferral.
Many question why, three years on, Devon’s planning authority continues to entertain all these delays, when "for the overall credibility of the planning system, extensions of time should really be the exception".
The Devon Minerals Plan was also delayed by years, as DCC waited for AI to demonstrate that Straitgate Farm was deliverable for sand and gravel extraction. In fact, six years ago this month a drop-in event staged by DCC to promote Straitgate was "besieged by 300 people" telling the council it was making a mistake. Those voices were and still are ignored.
Which is ironic, because this week DCC Minerals explained - in its newly endorsed Statement of Community Involvement - why it's important to involve communities in the planning process:
1.4.1 Involvement is important not only to inform individuals and stakeholders of the planning process but also to allow them to inform it, resulting in better plans and application decisions. Effective community involvement also has other benefits including:
- creating greater ‘public ownership’ of planning and sense of local democracy;
- allowing individuals and bodies to contribute to the community;
- informing the County Council of local priorities;
- increasing the communication and trust between the County Council and the people of Devon; and
- giving a better understanding of the way in which Devon County Council works for Devon’s future.
Perhaps if those 300 people had been listened to at the beginning of the plan-making process, Devon’s future wouldn’t now be staring at a proposal in East Devon to transport sand and gravel 2.5 million miles back and forth to Mid Devon where there are already 4 million tonnes of permitted reserves, and the community wouldn't now be faced with a proposal that stumbles from one delay to the next.
But hey, what do the public know?
