Three years ago, Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) won permission to extend an East Staffordshire sand and gravel quarry. The company is now having to scale back its ambitions after it failed to secure ownership of all the land forming the application site.
Does the company make a habit of submitting applications for land over which it has no rights? In 2016, Aggregate Industries, as it was then called, was forced to withdraw its application for Straitgate Farm, after it became clear that it did not have the necessary rights over third-party land to implement its site access plans. In 2020, the company submitted a planning application for a cattle crossing to facilitate its plans for Straitgate. This application also relied on third party land, and expired unimplemented three years later.
In Staffordshire, the county council approved the northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry in 2022, subject to conditions, but the company has now lodged an amended scheme. The Officer’s Report reads:
1. On 4 August 2022, the County Council’s Planning Committee resolved to permit an application for a northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry...2. In accordance with the Planning Committee’s resolution, a Section 106 legal agreement is required to be completed prior to issuing the planning permission; and all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site are required to sign the agreement.3. The applicant is not able to secure an interest in all the land forming the application site and therefore, not “all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site” are available to sign the Section 106...4. The effect of the applicant not being able to secure an interest in all the land which would be subject of the planning permission principally means that only the sand and gravel within the southern part of the extension area can be extracted by the applicant...5. The proposed partial implementation of the approved proposals would result in a reduced extraction area enabling 674,000 tonnes of sand and gravel to be won and worked over a period of approximately 20 months. This reduction of the extent of mineral operations would amount to a loss of 318,000 tonnes of sand and gravel.
Councillor Philip Hudson, said: "I think local people will be very pleased with what we’ve heard today because a lot of the objections before were about the amount of lorries coming out onto the B5030."
