4 November 2013
The Examination in Public (EiP) into Essex County Council's Draft Minerals Plan begins on 5th November at 10am at the Lord Ashcroft Building, Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford.
Despite numerous public consultation stages in which the concentration of minerals (sand and gravel) quarries in Braintree District was opposed by residents, parish councils and Braintree District Council, Essex County Council (ECC) has chosen to make no concessions - and even added in an additional site at a late stage (site A46 Colemans Farm, Rivenhall End.)
Green Councillors James Abbott, Bob Wright and Phil Hughes have been working with residents to raise awareness about the Plan including in February delivering letters to 2000 homes across communities most likely to be affected by the proposed concentration of minerals sites at Rivenhall End and Silver End. They will all be at the EiP to take part at various stages.
ECC proposes major extensions to the existing Bradwell Quarry at Rivenhall Airfield (1) with sites A5 and A6 near Silver End and a further large new site extending almost to Coggeshall Hamlet (A7). A completely new site is proposed at Colemans Farm, Rivenhall End (2).
Taken together, just these two locations are proposed by ECC to provide 45% of the entire additional minerals allocation for the whole of Essex to the year 2030.
And taken with the proposed site at Rayne, the southern half of Braintree District is expected by ECC to take 56% of the county allocation.
At the EiP, residents. parish councils and the district council will need to prove to the Inspector that the Draft Plan is "Unsound". The main arguments are that the Plan concentrates too much extraction in one area and so fails to achieve the Plan aim of site dispersal across Essex and also fails to minimise HGV haulage - which the Plan itself says should be done by allocating quarries close to major growth areas such as Colchester, Chelmsford and the Thames.
A confusing factor is that for the proposed Rivenhall End quarry at Coleman's Farm, the landowner has already submitted a preliminary planning document for a larger site, lasting longer (18 years) with an additional access. This is before the Inspector at the EiP has considered the site in the Draft Plan (please see attached image of Cllr. Abbott at the proposed site access on to Little Braxted Lane and the countryside behind that will be lost to the quarry).
Cllr. James Abbott, County and District Councillor for Witham Northern and Bradwell, Silver End and Rivenhall said
"If all these sites go ahead there will be dramatic and negative impacts on the countryside and wildlife habitats. Villagers will overlook deep quarries for many years, with footpaths and bridleways cut off or diverted, a country lane turned into an HGV access and the obvious potential for noise and dust. Increased HGV traffic is also of course a major concern on the A12, A120 and local roads and we will take no reassurances from landowners that HGVs will stick to agreed routes - we have seen such assurances broken before.
We strongly welcome the cross-party decision at Braintree District Council to object to the Plan. We will need to continue to work together and with our local communities to get ECC to change its position given its typical intransigence on minerals and waste issues.
We are not against all sites - we have accepted 2 more sensible and modest extensions to Bradwell Quarry (A3 and A4) as the district's "fair share" of the Essex total. But what ECC is proposing is totally excessive and completely unreasonable - but typical of their high-handed attitude towards local communities.
Looking to the future we will work with like-minded councillors across party lines to achieve real change at County Hall, where undemocratic and outdated practices persist. The future has to be one where residents can attend and speak at all council meetings and have a real say in the decisions that affect their lives."
Notes:
(1)
Large sand and gravel workings (sites A3 - A7) covering an area of 202 hectares are proposed by Essex County Council at Rivenhall Airfield. This is in ADDITION TO the proposed waste site and incinerator. Operations would run for at least 16 years and would extend the existing quarry to a length of over 4km East - West although site A7 is really a new site. It is proposed to extract 16 million tonnes - which amounts to 39% of the total for the whole of Essex to the year 2030.
The quarry would come closer to Silver End than any part has so far. Site A5 would be directly visible from parts of the village and would cut off 3 local footpaths. The Eastern end would almost reach Coggeshall HamletThere is no assessment in the Plan of the cumulative impacts of sites A5 - A7 with the proposed Major Waste Site and Incinerator, contrary to policies in the Plan. If the waste site and minerals sites did work at the same time there could be almost 1,000 HGV movements a day in and out of the access on the highly congested A120 at Bradwell village. Sites A3 and A4 have been accepted by BDC and a number of local parish councils as reasonable extensions to the existing quarry and so are not objected to.
(2)
A new sand and gravel site is proposed at Colemans Farm (site A46) near Rivenhall End. The site covers 46 hectares. It is proposed to extract 2.5 million tonnes over a 14 year period.At the previous stage of the Plan, this site was not on the list of Preferred sites. By including it now, ECC has ignored the views of local people, parish councils and Braintree District Council (BDC) who said at the last consultation that the concentration of sites locally was already too high.Site A46 would result in severe damage to Little Braxted Lane, which is proposed to be the access to the site. This is currently an ancient, quiet, single track country lane with high hedgerows on both sides. There are also major questions about HGV access on to the A12 where there are locally substandard junctions, as well as potential HGV traffic through Witham. The site would be a significant intrusion on the Blackwater Valley.
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