Merry Christmas

It's nearly Christmas and the Straitgate saga continues to blight the lives of local people – as it has done since 1965.

We have often used the word saga to describe the attempts by Aggregate Industries to recover a relatively minor amount of sand and gravel from Straitgate Farm. From this dictionary entry, you can see why: 

A saga is the kind of long, drawn-out story that can cause the people who hear it to roll their eyes in boredom. 

To see the long, drawn-out story for Straitgate, click history, and indeed be prepared to roll your eyes. 

Now that Aggregate Industries has finally won permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – permission to quarry little more than 1 million tonnes of saleable sand and gravel from the 20 million tonnes originally hoped for – you might have expected a rush of activity by the company to get things going, given how much the company previously complained about how its other site 23 miles away at Houndaller could not produce enough of the right material, and given the company only has 3 years to fulfil a gamut of onerous pre-commencement conditions and obligations. 

But apparently not. Click update to see how much Aggregate Industries has achieved – or is prepared to say it has achieved – in the first of those 3 years. Suddenly, it would seem, Aggregate Industries is in no rush at all. 

No doubt there will be more fun and games next year, but for now we wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for November and December

Nearly twelve months have elapsed since Aggregate Industries was granted planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm.

This week, with regards to the implementation of this permission, the company has said it has nothing to report for the last two months of the year, adding "the plan is to pick things up and get them moving in the New Year".

If such updates are to be believed, this means that Aggregate Industries has undertaken no activity in relation to the site for the last 6 months – with little activity of note before that.*

The company must satisfy a number of pre-commencement conditions and obligations before any mineral extraction can start.

EDIT 20.12.23 

* We asked Aggregate Industries: 

According to your updates, Aggregate Industries has done nothing with regard to Straitgate for the last six months or so, apart from sending a letter to the PWS owners - can you confirm this is correct? 

Tellingly, the company was unwilling to issue any such confirmation, other than to say: 

I can confirm that we have complied with the undertakings contained within our planning permission and that the permission gives us 3 years within which to implement the permission.

‘Exceptionally high’ rainfall – and still no water monitoring at Straitgate

Mineral extraction at Straitgate Farm is permitted to a level down to a guesstimate of the maximum water table – the MWWT. 

In their appeal decision, the Planning Inspectors said: 

the MWWT grid would be updated as necessary to reflect any higher groundwater readings.

Updated as necessary. Planning condition 28 for the Straitgate permission states: 

Prior to the commencement of any soil stripping on any phase of the development, a review of the Maximum Winter Water Table (MWWT) grid (being the hydrogeologically modelled surface of the maximum winter water table based on the highest recorded winter groundwater levels) shall be submitted to the Mineral Planning Authority for its approval in writing. 

In April, we posted that Straitgate groundwater levels were currently not being monitored, despite having the wettest March since 1981. 

Last month, the Environment Agency – in its Monthly water situation report: England October 2023 – reported that rainfall in the South West over the period November 2022 to October 2023 has been "Exceptionally high". 

What impact has all this rainfall had on the water table at Straitgate? Has the MWWT been exceeded again – as it has been in the past? 

No one knows. Aggregate Industries has not monitored groundwater levels at Straitgate since March 2022, the best part of 2 years. 

The company has confirmed: 

...we are not currently undertaking water monitoring at Straitgate. This is because there is no requirement to monitor at present as we have not yet started to implement our planning permission and therefore, the monitoring requirements within that permission have not yet started... 

However, it will be our intention during the course of 2024 and 2025 to undertake the 12 months of baseline monitoring that is required, and to seek approval of the required schemes so that the permission can be implemented prior to the January 2026 deadline. 

The MWWT is meant to reflect the maximum water table. Clearly – absent almost 2 years of groundwater monitoring during exceptionally wet periods – there is a high chance it doesn't.

It was the wettest October across England since 2000 with rainfall totals well above average.

Average rainfall was 147.2mm which represents 192% of the 1961 to 1990 LTA for the time of year.

River levels responded rapidly.

See the report detail here 👇https://t.co/5yi16F1yaO pic.twitter.com/uKiDWsKHb8

— HydrometryEA (@HydrometryEA) November 16, 2023