Gravel Raising
The saga continues! Last December the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA), following their earlier consultation on the appropriate level of primary aggregate extraction in the region, came out firmly in favour of a much-reduced volume of 9.01 million tonnes p.a. to 2026 (compared to the earlier Government requirement of 12.18mtpa). This reduced the allocation to Surrey to 1.32mtpa compared to the earlier 2.62mtpa (& should reduce the pressure for sites to be contributed by the Egham/Thorpe area). A formal submission of the revised targets was made to the Government in February but the Government have deferred commenting until a Public Inquiry (or Examination in Public) that took place from October 6-8th (with the final Inspector’s report by end 2009).
As a result SCC deferred their production of a revised draft Minerals Plan for the period to 2026 (including preferred gravel extraction sites) but issued a draft Primary Aggregates Development Plan for public consultation between 6th November & 18th December (before submission to the government next February ahead of a Public Inquiry next summer). This proposes that, even to meet the revised lower Surrey extraction target of 1.32mtpa, they will need to utilise the gravel resources at 11 “preferred area” across the county, which notably include the MPF site, the adjacent Whitehall Farm & Muckhatch Lane in Thorpe. This review may account for SCC's delay in considering the Hanson's application to work Milton Park Farm (see below) but we may need to step up our objections again in the light of the new draft Plan..............................
Further deatils of SCC's Minerals Plan can be found at :
In the meantime, the much-awaited application by Hanson Aggregates for gravel raising on the Milton Park Farm site was submitted to SCC on 31/3 but its review by the SCC Planning & Regulatory Committee has been continually delayed & is now not scheduled until their 17/2/10 meeting at the earliest. Details of the application (RU.09/0299) have been loaded on the RBC website & can be found by following this link :
ftp://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/planning_applications/Milton_park_farm/
Unfortunately the files are enormous & will take a while to download!
The SCC consultation notification is attached & actually lists a lot of reasons that residents can use in their objection!
As you may expect we have objected on a number of grounds (including traffic (230 lorry movements a day are planned), hydrology (impact on drainage & water table), noise, impact on Manorscroft School etc). The local Residents Against Gravel Extraction (R.A.G.E) group of residents associations also organised a public meeting to galvanise objections (9th June at Manorcrofts School at 7.30pm) - more details on the RAGE page......
The RBC Planning Committee's review of the application took place on 16th September & resulted in a unanimous vote to strongly object to the application on the grounds of prematurity & serious impacts on traffic & local hydrology. However, they only have a consultative role (with the decision-making responsibility held by SCC) &, after further delay, the application is now due to be heard by SCC's Planning & Regulatory Committee on 17th February, so still time to send of an objection letter (a suggested template follows)..............
