Recently, we posted AI’s application to quarry Straitgate – determination date delayed for 9th time.
The delay is not surprising. Last year, a ROMP application DCC/3655/2014 for Hillhead let the cat out of the bag that Aggregate Industries didn't 'need' Straitgate Farm until 2021:
Should Straitgate Farm obtain planning permission in 2018, extraction would likely commence in 2021.
We posted at the time So, Straitgate’s not ‘needed’ until 2021 – says AI – which proves it’s not needed at all. Previously Aggregate Industries had proclaimed it couldn't do without Straitgate Farm because the remaining reserve at Hillhead was just too sandy, but for 5 years the company has happily disproved this assertion – evidenced by huge stockpiles of gravel.
But there is now confirmation within documents from the the company's application for Straitgate Farm – the Transport Assessment released under a recent FOI request – that Aggregate Industries' timescales for this site have indeed slipped:
5.1.1 Sand and gravel extraction at Straitgate Farm is proposed to be conducted on a campaign basis over an estimated 10 to 12 year period. On this basis the assessment covers the period between 2021 to 2033. Campaign periods are envisaged to last between five and seven weeks and secure 60,000 tonnes of mineral for transportation to Hillhead Quarry for processing. Subject to market conditions between two and three campaigns are proposed each year resulting in a period of working between 10 and 21 weeks of the year.
Aggregate Industries' application for Straitgate Farm was first launched in 2015, to provide for when operations ceased at Venn Ottery at the end of 2016.
Local people repeatedly ask about Devon County Council's attitude to these continued delays. Back in March 2018, we were informed by a planning officer:
There is no specific policy as far as I'm aware. Some applications take longer than others to determine. If there was complete inactivity we might ask for it to be withdrawn, but as this is an allocated mineral site and we have formally asked for additional information from the applicants we are giving them the opportunity to provide this. I imagine that you would expect the applicant to response to issues that have come up in the course of the determination of this application and at the moment this is what they are endeavouring to do.
That was almost two years ago.
To give some idea of how long planning applications for quarries typically take, the MPA recently published its seventh AMPS report:
It takes 29.4 and 29.9 months respectively to secure permission for both sand and gravel and crushed rock reserves, based on a 10-year average.
As the Council's planning officer made clear, some applications will indeed take longer than others, longer than that 10-year average figure, and likewise, some will be determined sooner. To the end of last year, the clock on Straitgate had been running for 54 months – almost twice as long as the average.
Straitgate, if permitted, would be considered a small quarry – hardly viable. Goodness knows how long Aggregate Industries might take for a normal size quarry.
