Thursday 13 October 2016

Venn Ottery

Aggregate Industries' planning application to alter the working and restoration of Venn Ottery Quarry DCC/3861/2016 will be determined at the DMC meeting on Wednesday 19th October 2016 at 2.00 pm.

As the Officer’s report says, the application arose because - and we know how hard it is for AI to stick to planning conditions - "the site has been quarried in a slightly different way to that which was approved".

A number of objections - along the lines of "Nothing more than a sinister attempt..." etc - were received by DCC "on the belief that the application would extend the life of the quarrying operations", particularly in relation to Blackhill where the permission to process the Venn Ottery material expires on 31 December 2016. The belief came about because of what AI initially said, as the Officer's report details:
The application states that mineral extraction will be completed by 1 April 2017, but the applicant has now confirmed that the extraction operations at the quarry will finish by 31 December 2016 which ties in with the required cessation of mineral processing at Blackhill.
But if quarrying at Venn Ottery is to finish by 31 December 2016, objectors will surely be confused when they read DCC's first Planning Condition: