Christmas is almost upon us, and yet another year has passed in the Straitgate saga.
For new readers, this story has been going on some time: Aggregate Industries' current planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm first went live in June 2015. It was withdrawn in March 2016, only to be resubmitted in January 2017. Preparatory work, however, started years before that, and the very first application to quarry Straitgate was submitted back in 1967.
How much further have AI's plans advanced in 2018?
There's an assortment of information that DCC still requires from AI. The last time any information from AI and its consultants was posted on DCC's planning website was in September 2017. One year later, in September 2018, the Leader of DCC advised MP Hugo Swire:
We are still awaiting this information from the applicant which is why there has been no apparent movement on these matters.
What an earth can be so complicated to cause such delays? you might wonder. If it's any clue, the information AI still has to supply ranges from how agricultural movements will be managed across Exeter Road and the farm itself, to revised plans of the working area taking account of the elevated groundwater levels recorded earlier in the year.
Whilst outwardly there has been no progress this year, in some respects AI’s application has actually gone backwards. The company’s groundwater model was shown to have failed - by up to 2.8m - and there is consequently now even less material to win. When we joked last Christmas about two cows, how AI’s recoverable resource had effectively fallen from 33 cows in 1965 to just two cows, little did we know then that the company would then go on to lose part of one of those cows too!
Our updates since September 2017 have followed a common theme: AI requests deferral, AI’s application for Straitgate Farm lurches from one delay to another, More delays to come, AI delays yet again, Three years on and yet more delays, Determination date for AI’s Straitgate Farm planning application extended yet again, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm delayed again, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 5th time, AI’s application will now stagger into its 5th year – 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019…, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 6th time.
In pictorial terms, these delays might be represented by:
Some local residents feel that all this has been going on long enough:
Even the wildlife are getting tired of it all:
Rumours abound that equipment set aside for the Straitgate job, lies abandoned in various locations around the East Devon countryside:
Of course, in meetings with DCC, AI will be saying one thing:
But behind the scenes, management must realise that things have not gone smoothly:
Here’s an image that perhaps best describes AI’s recent progress in real terms:
The company has been bogged down by the cattle crossing issue, and the cars that would therefore have to queue on the busy Exeter Road. AI does however have a plan:
In the face of having to haul material from Straitgate a total of 2.5 million miles to be processed, AI has now come up with some new pollution controls:
Readers will know that, over the years, the company has supplied a variety of fiction to support its application for Straitgate. AI's defence?
We've even had Meghan Markle's old law firm look over parts of the application. Their conclusion?
As a result, this blog will in future deploy a new tool:
Finally, this pictorial update would not be complete without an image of a cat – "that essential building block of the Internet" according to The New York Times. So, to sum up what many must be feeling about this whole thing by now:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers!
