Quarry Extension Threat!

There could be a quarry in your backyard by 2016 - or even before

Birdsedge is currently under threat from two directions, first of all the threat of five large wind turbines within 500 metres of housing. (See details)

But possibly more worrying, bcecause it's not so easily opposed and because it comes primarily from Kirklees council, is the draft proposal to include an extension to stone quarrying at the Sovereign in the core strategy LDF - the Local Development Framework - i.e. the long term planning for land use within the area.

There are four LDF proposals on the table. From what I understand from my reading of them, the first two do not include any extension of quarrying at the Sovereign. If the LDF proposals 3 or 4 are accepted, however then the most sensible potential site (this is how it was described to me by a Kirklees representative) is the area known as Dearn Dike, i.e. the triangle of land that runs from Five Lane Ends down towards Birdsedge Village with its boundary being Dearn Dike Lane on one side and Park Head Lane on the other. The proposed stand-off from housing need not be more than 100 metres. The quarry could extend as far as Rusby wood and down Park Head Lane as close as Tinkers' new barn.

However - and this is a big however - one of the councillors has informed me that quarrying would be included in all the draft action plans.

Here.

Though Kirklees say they gave everyone in the area the chance to speak out during the initial consultation period which officially closed in April 2009. it seems that their publicity was less than thorough (notices in Shepley Library but not in Denby Dale for instance) and residents of Birdsedge who may well end up with a quarry almost in their back garden are only just waking up to that fact. To this end Kirklees has agreed to extend that initial consultation.

Let me make it clear there are no current applications for planning permission existing, so writing to Kirklees to object to the quarrying will only get you the standard reply that no specific plans for quarrying currently exist. What you should be objecting to is any Draft LDF which allows for new quarrying at the Sovereign site.

Though the planning office repeatedly says that planning permission has not yet been sought, the fact is that they have a map which shows the area described above as potential quarry. In a long conversation with Roy Hamnett of the Minerals and Waste Disposal Department at Kirklees he admitted to me that if the core strategy plan were to include a vague 'extension to quarrying at the Sovereign' then the only logical place for the quarry to extend would be into the fields approaching Birdsedge. Soundings have been done and the stone in this area is entirely suitable for purpose. He told me that if this were to be done then one thing which had already been suggested was that the quarry would be accessed by an underground road, i.e. beneath the existing road at Five Lane Ends.

Despite these details that seemed to have already been thoroughly discussed – at least in outline - we are told that there is no planning application at the moment, however - very much like the windmill situation - by the time an actual plan is submitted to quarry the area we will have little time to fight it.

One resident has already written to Mr Hamnett's department and has received a letter saying that there will be plenty of time to object to the proposed quarry when the outline plan is revealed in mid 2010, but I suspect that by this time we will be closing the stable door when the horse is already half way out of it.

Our main aim at the moment should be to voice our objection to the adoption of ANY DRAFT PLAN which even allows the planning application for such a quarry to begin. Here is the link to the proposed land usage for employment in all four draft plans
If you scroll down to the end of the page in the last table you will see that currently the land is green belt and that there is an allocation of 5 - 10 hectares at a location described as 'A629/A635 Sovereign' which is the Appleton site.

Note there are 2.471 acres in 1 hectare, so this potentially a huge 24 acre site

What you can do NOW

Write to Kirklees:

Mr Roy Hamnett
Minerals and Waste Disposal
Planning Services
Civic Centre 3
Market Street
Huddersfield
HD1 2JR

Please don't object to the proposed quarry because THERE ISN'T ONE YET, however you CAN object to any draft plan which allocates any amount of land, but specifically 5-10 hectares of land at Sovereign (A635/A629) for industrial use type B1*/2 (possible quarrying).

Please ask that Kirklees council keep you informed by letter about any future LDF developments which include any outline or sspecific planning applications for an extension of quarrying at the Sovereign.

One Further Point to Note

The Draft LDF plan is already five years behind where it was meant to be. If in the meantime if Appletons decide that they can't wait for the LDF approval in 2016 before submitting plans, they could submit them before the LDF has been approved. If that were to be the case then it is in their own best interests to submit earlier rather than later because once they get to within a year or two of the 2016 deadline there's something comes into force called 'Prematurity' whereby if the application is too close to the point where the DPD (Development Plan Document) is resolved the application will be turned down pending resolution.

The potential fight against this quarry could be closer than you think.

Links

What is the Local Development Framework

The LDF document (download pfd)

Please note the dates for discussion on the Kirklees website are wrong and have not yet been amended.

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