Two applications from Aggregate Industries SCC/3742/2020 and SCC/3748/2020 to re-open a limestone quarry in the Mendips came before Somerset County Council Regulation Committee yesterday.
The two applications seek the same outcome in enabling recommencement of extraction within Bartlett’s Quarry in parallel with, rather than upon completion of, extraction at Torr Works. Application SCC/3742/2020 proposes the removal of Condition 2 of permission 2016/0025/CNT that was imposed in February 2020, while application SCC/3748/2020 proposes the following changes to the existing S106 Agreement for Torr Works…
Officers recommended permission be granted. Let’s say that again. Planning officers – including the one who championed Straitgate Farm's inclusion in the Devon Minerals Plan – recommended that previously agreed planning conditions and S106 agreements, intended to protect local communities, be cast aside for the benefit of Aggregate Industries.
The justification put forward for recommencing limestone extraction at Bartlett’s Quarry, before extraction is finished at nearby Torr Works, another of Aggregate Industries' limestone quarries, was based on the company securing a new contract "along with its partner PORR, to construct concrete beds for the HS2 project, the material for which shall be supplied from Torr Quarry":
As one of two Somerset rail-linked quarries (the other being Whatley), Torr Quarry supplied 3.65 million tonnes of crushed rock by rail in 2018, predominantly to London and the South East, with a further 1.85 million tonnes transported by road to more local markets. To meet anticipated increased demand arising from infrastructure development in these other regions, notably from HS2, the applicant proposes to increase the volume of crushed rock transported from Torr Quarry by rail to 4.6 million tonnes, with road-based output to reduce to 0.9 million tonnes, and to recommence extraction at Bartlett’s Quarry to provide an additional 0.9 million tonnes to deliver the balance of the local need.
The Section 106 agreement was in place to prevent resumption of extraction at Bartlett’s Quarry until working at Torr Works ceased in an effort to limit the cumulative impact on surrounding villages and on groundwater. In fact, permission had only just been granted for one of these applications that Aggregate Industries now wanted to change. The Officers’ Report gives more detail:
3.3 In February 2020, permission was granted (2016/0025/CNT) for the variation of Condition 1 of Schedule B of the ROMP conditions (077905/015) to alter the expiry date for Bartlett’s Quarry to 21 February 2042. However, a new condition (numbered 2) was imposed to reflect the Torr Works S106 Agreement (see 3.6 below) requiring that: “No further extraction of Carboniferous limestone or dewatering shall be undertaken within Bartlett’s Quarry prior to the permanent cessation of commercial extraction of Carboniferous limestone and associated dewatering at Torr Works Quarry.
3.6 When the separate Torr Works complex received planning permission (2010/0984) for deepening and a time extension to 2040 in July 2012, the accompanying Section 106 Agreement included the following covenant on the mineral operator: 11.1 not to resume extraction of carboniferous limestone or dewatering within Coleman’s Quarry until such time as the commercial extraction of carboniferous limestone from the Operative Torr Land and associated dewatering as authorised by any subsisting and current planning permission shall have ceased.
3.7 As extraction at Torr Works is expected to continue until around 2040, the effect of this covenant is to prevent any further extraction within Bartlett’s Quarry (which contains the major part of the remaining reserves) or other part of the Coleman’s Quarry complex before a short period prior to their expiry date in 2042.
Section 106 agreements are legal agreements between local authorities and developers "to make acceptable development which would otherwise be unacceptable in planning terms."
Local residents submitted some 93 objections. Two of the main issues raised in these objections, according to the Officers’ Report, were:
the S106 Agreement was entered into by Aggregate Industries in good faith, and its amendment removes any trust in them;
Condition 2 was only imposed in February 2020 following objections to a previous application, with no change of planning policy or other circumstances since then, and the proposal does not meet current policy;
The applications came before committee yesterday. This Twitter thread helpfully tells the story. Chair Cllr John Parham said:
The case that Aggregate Industries has made about the justification for running both quarries in tandem is weak. The capacity of Torr is a business issue for them, not a planning issue for us.
He proposed the application be rejected on the grounds that the company had "not provided sufficient justification for running both of these quarries in tandem". Fortunately, the committee voted to refuse the application by 7 votes to 0.
