A planning application by Devon County Council 20/1504/MOUT for a new school and 150 homes to pay for it at Thorne Farm, Ottery St Mary, was refused this week by East Devon District Council.
The site was outside the Built-Up Area Boundary and not allocated for housing in either the East Devon Local Plan or the Ottery Neighbourhood Plan. Councillors rejected the planning officer's recommendation to approve, accepting that whilst it might have been the right location for a school it certainly wasn’t the right location for 150 new homes.
There was a minerals angle to this application given the site's proximity to sand and gravel deposits – although these deposits would in all likelihood never be workable.
We had previously posted in 2019, Could mineral deposits interfere with plans for a new primary school in Ottery? And last year, Plans for school and 150 houses at Thorne Farm – objections mount and Significant increase in HGVs on B3174 Exeter Road from working minerals “unlikely to be appropriate” – says report commissioned by DCC. As we posted:
If HGVs working minerals at the Thorne Farm site "is unlikely to be appropriate" for the B3174, how on earth can up to 200 HGVs a day from a quarry at Straitgate – just 1000m to the west of the proposed new school – be appropriate for the same stretch of road, particularly given the level of accidents on this stretch – some documented here – and when the impact of 150 cows crossing 4 times daily has still not been assessed?
The Officer's report from EDDC said:
The proximity to mineral extraction has been questioned. Whilst there is the potential for future extraction within 200 metres of the site boundary, the degree of separation between quarrying and sensitive properties is likely to be adequate to prevent future mineral extraction within the area having adverse impacts through noise and dust on future residents and school users, assuming that standard environmental control measures are included in any future mineral planning permission.
The above statement was based on responses from DCC’s Planning Development Manager and Devon Stone Federation. The former was rather late to the table, only responding some months after the application was validated in July. He was plainly annoyed that he had been left out of the loop – despite the applicant being the County Council itself:
I refer to your consultation of 1st October 2020 concerning the above application, which was sent some time after validation of the application. My understanding is that the consultation was prompted by an enquiry by the applicant, and I wish to underline the importance of your Council meeting its statutory obligation to consult with the County Council in its role as mineral planning authority for applications falling within a Mineral Consultation Area.
He didn't agree with the Mineral Resource Assessment that had been prepared for the Council:
The application is accompanied by a 'Preliminary Mineral Resource Assessment', which concludes that "the proposed development will not sterilise important mineral resources" and that "the mineral resource at the site is not of strategic importance". However, it is considered that this Assessment is flawed…
But he was nevertheless able to arrive at the conclusion:
Based on the discussion above, it is concluded that the proposed residential and school development would not sterilise or constrain sand and gravel resources within the nearby Mineral Safeguarding Areas and that the proposal accords with Policy M2 of the Devon Minerals Plan. Devon County Council therefore has no objection in its role of mineral planning authority.
Devon Stone Federation replied shortly after, and again disagreed with the MRA:
Details of this application have been passed to the Devon Stone Federation (DSF) by... the Devon Minerals Officer... The application is accompanied by a Mineral Resource Assessment, but the DSF does not support the conclusions that as there are no aggregate resources within the site itself, the development does not have potential to sterilise the nearby mineral resources…
Nevertheless, DSF was also still able to arrive at the same view as DCC:
the DSF does not consider that these uses are sufficiently sensitive to potential future extraction of the sand and gravel in the deposit to the north west to justify grounds for objection in principle to the proposals in this outline application.
Which was all jolly convenient given the applicant was DCC.
In the end none of it mattered. Councillors voted against the proposal by 11 votes to 2, with 2 abstentions.
EDIT 15.7.2021 Devon County Council has decided not to appeal the decision.
