That was the very question Ottery Town Council asked Devon County Council last week:
Ottery St Mary Town Council held their January meeting on Monday and have requested that I write to you to voice their extreme disappointment at the judgement from the Planning Inspectorate in relation to the Straitgate Farm Planning Appeal Inquiry. The Council has never supported the plans for the creation of a quarry and are very concerned about the extremely negative impact the development will have on our parish. The Council would like to ask whether there is any further action that Devon County Council can take to prevent the quarry from being built?
Devon County Council responded:
Like the Town Council, Devon County Council is disappointed that the robust defence of the reasons for refusal put forward by its expert witnesses (together with those acting on behalf of Straitgate Action Group) has not been reflected in a favourable appeal decision. The only means for the County Council or another aggrieved party with sufficient standing to challenge the Planning Inspectorate’s decision is through judicial review of the lawfulness of the decision – this would not involve any reconsideration of the merits or otherwise of the development proposals, but would be a challenge to the way in which that decision was made on grounds of illegality, irrationality or procedural impropriety.
So what can be done?
Now that Aggregate Industries has been granted permission to quarry Straitgate Farm, attention turns to the planning conditions and legal obligations – shown below – that have been imposed by the Government Planning Inspectors. It is only by the imposition of these conditions and obligations that the Inspectors consider the company’s application to be acceptable.
Links to the the planning conditions and S106 legal obligations have been put on the side of this blog for future reference, and the What to do page has been re-written accordingly.
Devon County Council as the Minerals Planning Authority has the unenviable responsibility for enforcing the multitude of conditions and obligations. The Council encourages members of the public to report any suspected breaches. The Council’s Monitoring and Enforcement Plan says:
3.2.1 Local planning authorities such as DCC have a duty to investigate alleged breaches of planning control, and anyone reporting an alleged breach to the Council is entitled to expect that the matter will be investigated in a timely and professional manner and the outcome communicated to them.4.1.1 DCC encourages the reporting of suspected breaches of planning control by members of the public or representative bodies such as town and parish councils and County Councillors. As development can gain immunity from enforcement action over time, it is important that any suspected breaches are reported as soon as possible in order that harmful development can be removed or minimised.4.3.10 A significant proportion of complaints received by DCC concern existing mineral or waste sites where it is alleged that the operator is failing to comply with the approved documents or with the conditions attached to the site’s planning permissions. Common examples include working outside approved hours, failure to control levels of noise or dust, and failure to carry out necessary habitat management or restoration work. While such breaches can become apparent through the Council’s site monitoring, reports are welcomed from local residents to ensure that adverse impacts can be investigated as early as possible.4.1.2 The most convenient means of reporting an unauthorised development or other potential breach is through the online reporting facility on DCC’s planning website at https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/enforcement.Other methods of communication available are: Email: planning@devon.gov.ukPost: Development Management Planning, Transportation & Environment Devon County Council Lucombe House County Hall Exeter EX2 4QDPhone: 01392 383000 (ask for Planning)
Aggregate Industries must satisfy a number of pre-commencement conditions and obligations before any mineral extraction can start. Given, for example, the company’s astonishing failure to date to reliably measure something as fundamental as the site’s rate of infiltration, condition 13, this is no small task.
