Bulcote Farm Planning Application - Latest news

Tarmac have failed to meet the deadline of 31 August 2006 set by the County Council’s Planning Committee for the resubmission of their planning application for an open-cast sand and gravel mine at Bulcote Farm. They have not withdrawn their application either. This means that the application will now be decided on the application submitted in July 2002.

A report will be prepared by the County’s Environment Department and will inevitably recommend that the Planning Committee refuse the application because, amongst other things, Tarmac has failed to:
   *   provide evidence that their proposals will not increase flooding risks or provide mitigation of additional flood risk
   *   include a method of mitigating the dewatering risks posed by an open cast mine so close to a substantial number of houses
   *   provide an assessment of the impact of the proposal on Bulcote Conservation Area
   *   remove a proposal for a sewage composting plan on the site, which is in the Green Belt where such activities are prohibited

On 30 August, the Evening Post reported a spokesperson for Tarmac saying that the company would be unable to meet the deadline. Our inquiries have shown that Tarmac have not been able to come up with any proposals to satisfy the Environment Agency on the major problems of flooding and dewatering that were researched, highlighted and pressed forward since 2002 by the three village residents groups – Gunthorpe Environmental and Flood Alleviation Group (GEFAG), Bulcote Conservation Trust (BCT) and BJRA. We also learned that Tarmac had asked for more time and officers were prepared to accede to their request – in spite of the Planning Committee’s decision to set a deadline. So we were particularly pleased to see the Evening Post reporting Neil Hunt, the council's minerals planning team leader, saying that if Tarmac missed the deadline he expected to proceed now according to the Planning Committee’s decision.

We expect to see Nottinghamshire County Council’s Planning Committee that meets on 8 September confirm this process and ask for a report on the application to be presented to the Committee at the meeting on 3 October.