Aggregate Industries’ planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm will not now be determined in September. The company has again failed to meet an agreed extension.
Nine years have passed since Aggregate Industries’ consultants started crawling over Straitgate Farm in preparation for plans to quarry the site. Six years have passed since the company’s initial application. The determination date for the re-submitted application has been extended 12 times.
In October 2020, Devon County Council warned Aggregate Industries:
There is increasing and justified concern within the community about the length of time being taken to determine this application and the delays in providing requested information.This application has now been with the County Council for nearly three years [six years since the initial application] and the uncertainty for the local community is a situation that the County Council as Mineral Planning Authority can no longer accept by continuing to request further delays in the determination due to a lack of the information we have been asking Aggregate Industries to provide.I must advise you that any extension of the determination date will now be limited to a reasonable period of time for you to do this work. The County Council will not be requesting a further extension of time beyond the end of this year…
It was a hollow threat. Two weeks later, Aggregate Industries wrote to the Council "to confirm our agreement to a further extension of time until the 31st March 2021."
That extension was missed, and on 11 March 2021, the Council offered yet another extension:
I am writing to ask you to formally agree to extend the period for the determination of your application until 30 September 2021. You have indicated this will give you adequate time.
This week we found out that it was not adequate time.
It's the same old story. Aggregate Industries says one thing and does another. On 7 April 2021, Aggregate Industries wrote to Devon County Council with "our final submission of additional information."
It was not final. On 30 June 2021, Aggregate Industries wrote to Devon County Council with "our final response to the queries raised as part of the consultation."
That was not final either.
So, where do we stand now, 12 months on from when the Council said no further extensions would be agreed? The next possible date for determination is 20 October 2021.
