Despite the landscape implications, Aggregate Industries’ application DCC/4189/2020 for a new asphalt plant adjacent to Broadpath landfill site next to Hillhead Quarry has been recommended for approval.
The company's supporting statement for the proposal says "there will be an intrinsic link with Hillhead Quarry due to the use of sand and gravel from the quarry in the asphalt making process."
Previous posts on this potential eyesore can be found here.
The planning officer’s report reads:
7.3 Taken in isolation, the landscape and visual impacts of the proposed development are such as to warrant refusal of the application due to the significant harm to the local landscape character and visual quality. Although some mitigation is proposed in the form of building design and tree planting, this is insufficient to outweigh the harm caused to the landscape, and the proposals are considered to fail to accord with relevant policies, notably M18 and M20 of the Devon Minerals Plan and DM1 of the Mid Devon Local Plan.7.4 However, it is necessary to weigh the adverse landscape impact against the benefits that will be derived from securing the closure of the existing asphalt plant at Westleigh Quarry and cessation of the associated lorry movements through Burlescombe, particularly those during the night. The strong support for the proposal from Burlescombe and Holcombe Rogus Parish Councils is noted, as is the location of the site within a landscape that has been subject to extensive mineral and waste development.7.5 It is considered that, while the proposal is contrary to the Minerals Plan in terms of Policy M18, the benefits of facilitating the relocation of the asphalt plant away from Westleigh to a location where operational and traffic impacts will be lower is sufficient to offset the landscape impact. It is therefore considered that the principle of the development is acceptable in overall policy terms, having regard to the Devon Minerals Plan as a whole together with paragraph 203 of the NPPF, and that the development should be approved subject to the conditions set out in Appendix I.
The widening of Clay Lane is a pre-commencement condition of this proposal. The widening scheme – which had previously been linked to the application to import Straitgate material into Hillhead and touted as a benefit "sufficient to outweigh the negative impact of transporting the Straitgate minerals to Hillhead Quarry for processing" – was approved in 2018, but has not yet been implemented.
EDIT 22.4.21 Application approved, 8 votes for, 1 against.
