Tuesday, 13 October 2020

Where are we with the cattle crossing issue?

Aggregate Industries' proposal to quarry Straitgate Farm – a dairy farm – would require the introduction of a cattle crossing across the busy B3174 Exeter Road, close to the brow of a hill. This would be used up to four times a day for around 150 cows – in much the same way that cows cross roads elsewhere in Devon and beyond – so they can access pasture to replace that lost to quarrying. 

Aggregate Industries has so far failed to assess the impact of cows on queueing traffic. As traffic consultants Vectos – representing another party – wrote:
The provision of a Cattle crossing over the B3174 may have severe impact on the operation of the B3174, which in the absence of assessment is not known.
Last year, as we posted in Bovine movements revisited – more than 2 years on, Devon County Council – following advice from their Highways Management department – wrote to Aggregate Industries:
The application needs to include the proposed agricultural access (TA 5.5.10) to the west of the existing farm access and directly opposite the existing field gate, to improve upon the current diagonal crossing point. That would enable a shorter traverse of the highway by livestock, effectively reducing crossing times. The Highway Authority also considers that these proposals should include holding pens on both sides of the road to assist in the efficient movement of the livestock. It appears that this would be a betterment of the existing situation and is related to the proposed mineral working based upon the worst case scenario of the available cattle movements, as put forward (TA 3.2.3) in the email from the Tenant Farmer [sic] to the Mineral Planning Authority dated 26 February 2018. The inclusion of the above is, we believe, outside of the application site and therefore it would possibly require a resubmission of the application to include it. However we do not believe that it is sufficient for the applicant to merely offer this to the Tenant Farmer and the Highway Authority without any means of the MPA being able to condition it.
At the start of this year, we made another Freedom of Information request to Devon County Council and learnt that Aggregate Industries informed the Council last October:
[AI’s traffic consultant] remains disappointed that your highways colleagues have done a U-turn from what we agreed with them at our meeting in terms of the cattle/livestock crossing. However, that said it may be in our interests to demonstrate that we have provided betterment that we secure a consent for a new perpendicular cattle crossing and we are currently preparing an application for submission to EDDC. Are you happy with this approach as this would negate altering the red line boundary?
The FOI asked for all Council correspondence relating to the application, but no reply to that communication has yet been provided. We can safely presume, however, that the answer was yes because last December, Aggregate Industries wrote to Devon County Council again:
A planning application for a new cattle crossing over the B3174 Exeter Road is also being finalised for submission to EDDC.
It's hardly a surprise that in 10 months no such application has appeared on EDDC’s planning website.

How would such an application be received? Look what happened last time such a plan was aired: 
Cattle crossing plan labelled ‘outrageous’
Traffic light 'cattle crossing' called 'downright dangerous'
'Outrageous' plans to proposed cattle crossing at Staitgate Farm, Ottery.
Since then, no assessment has been produced to show the impact a cattle crossing would have on the functioning or safety of this main road into and out of Ottery – a fast and busy road linking the town with the Daisymount A30 junction. Aggregate Industries – the company that conveniently forgot to mention the thorny issue of cows in the first place – would obviously rather not assess the dangers, despite claiming – perhaps in jest? – that only they can be trusted to provide data on the movements of cows.

But many will find it surprising that this has not been addressed – given the issue directly results from the proposal, given the issue was flagged to the Council more than three years ago, and given the impact that cow movements – planned and unplanned – seem to have on the roads elsewhere in Devon. As DevonLive recently reported:
It's a proper Devon morning on the roads with warnings to motorists to watch out for sheep, tyres and a whole herd of cows on the roads.
This wasn't an isolated incident. Twitter points us to more:







This Twitter search points us to a multitude of others:

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