Issue - meetings

Report by the Assistant Director for Strategic Infrastructure and Planning (PN8).

The quarry has identified a need for the provision of a wider range of aggregate products within the local area and proposes to meet this demand by providing the local community with a wider range of aggregate products.  Planning permission is therefore being sought for the importation, handling and resale of 10,000tpa of aggregates within a small section of New Barn Farm Quarry. It is anticipated that 30% of the imported aggregates would be secondary and/or recycled and would largely comprise compost soil blend with the proportion of secondary and/or recycled aggregates is expected to increase as more supplies become available. 

Subject to a supplemental routeing agreement first being entered into planning permission MW.0114/20 be APPROVED subject to conditions to be determined by the Assistant Director for Strategic Infrastructure and Planning to include those set out in Annex 1 to the report PN8.

Approved

The Committee considered (PN8) an application from Grundon Sand & Gravel Ltd for provision of a wider range of aggregate products from its operation at New Barn Farm to the local community. Planning permission was, therefore, being sought for the importation, handling and resale of 10,000tpa of aggregates within a small section of the Quarry. It was anticipated that 30% of the imported aggregates would be secondary and/or recycled and would largely comprise compost soil blend with the proportion of secondary and/or recycled aggregates expected to increase as more supplies became available. 

Having presented the report Mr Periam confirmed that the configuration of the site access prevented any right turn out of the site.

Stuart Darby who had been due to speak had been unable to attend. A copy of his submission had been made available to members prior to the meeting in case of connectivity problems and so members of the Committee were aware of the grounds of Mr Darby’s objection.

Councillor Pete Sudbury addressed the Committee and also spoke on behalf of Mr Stuart Darby.  Outlining a number of main objections to this application he first advised that one of those concerns regarding potential loss of trade for other local suppliers seemed to have now been addressed following confirmation from local merchants that it was no longer an issue of concern for them. Other objections and concerns included what he referred to as the “bridgehead problem” where development could be allowed on the outside of the line of the Wallingford bypass in addition to the significant development already taking place inside the line of the road. That could lead to more traffic congestion and further erode the purpose of the bypass to keep traffic away from the centre of Wallingford.  It was clear from the Grundon application that this proposal was aimed at creating a significant retail operation and any development allowed outside the line of the road meant that other applications including ones for residential development would be hard to resist. The coalescence of areas such as Brightwell and Wallingford was not the way forward and if that was allowed to happen then the bypass would become a through road with lower speed limits, more local traffic and more traffic encouraged to cut through Wallingford exacerbating current air quality issues in the town centre  As a major route from Didcot to the south and Henley the A4130  pre-Covid had already been congested at peak times and current levels of traffic were neither indicative or representative of what we might return to. Future residential development both locally and in Didcot meant this road should be regarded as a future pinch point and he did not accept that the extra traffic generated would be trivial as indicated by modelling assumptions but continue to be busiest at peak times and not spread out equally through the day. Access to the site was unsuitable for non-commercial traffic with the potential for accidents and tailbacks whereas the access to Highcroft hadan extensive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15