Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillor Holgate.

Temporary replacements

County Councillor S Rigby replaced County Councillor Cullens.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

No pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests were disclosed.

The committee are asked to agree that the Minutes of the last meeting held on 17 January 2024 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th January 2024 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Matters Arising

In relation to the Bank Farm applications which had both been refused at the last meeting, County Councillor Pope stated that he was aware that one of the companies was moving to Burscough Industrial Estate and asked whether there was any progress in relation to the other one. Rob Hope, Principal Planner, reported that the other company was in the process of moving stockpiles and that the site was due to be visited this week.

The Update Sheet will be considered as part of each related agenda report.

The Update Sheet was circulated prior to the meeting (copy attached).

A report was presented on an application for an amendment to conditions 3, 8 and 9 of planning permission LCC/2020/0061 which related to a green waste composting operation at Iron House Farm. These would permit amended hours of operation, to allow up to 75,000 tonnes of green waste, waste timber or other waste materials for the purposes of producing compost to be imported per annum and to amend the limitation on the numbers of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) exporting compost to an average of 5 per day over a 12-month period.

The report included the views of Out Rawcliffe Parish Council. Wyre Borough Council and the Environment Agency had no comments to make and no representations had been received.

Committee's attention was drawn to the Update Sheet which included comments from Lancashire County Council Highways.

The Head of Development Control presented a Powerpoint presentation showing site location plans, an air photograph of the application site, and photographs of the site access off Lancaster Road and the site for the proposed building.

The legal officer read out the following written representation from County Councillor John Shedwick, local county councillor, Thornton and Hambleton division:

'I support the objection to the application by the Out Rawcliffe Parish Council on the grounds of impact on the rural environment and public nuisance. I also consider that the local road network is inadequate and that there is insufficient information in relation to frequency of vehicle movements. I am also concerned about a loss of seasonality with greater impact on the residents, an increase in plastic waste as evidenced from local hedgerows and a likely increase in mound heights which frequently exceed the permitted levels.'

After a discussion, it was:

Resolved:  That planning permission be granted subject to conditions controlling time limits, working programme, highway issues, tonnage restrictions, hours of operation, noise and dust, drainage and landscaping as set out in the Committee report. 

A report was presented on an application for a variation of condition 1 of Planning Permission LCC/2022/0057, to allow mineral working to continue until 1 July 2026 and final restoration to be completed by 1 July 2027 at Waddington Fell Quarry, Slaidburn Road, Waddington.

The report included the views of Ribble Valley Borough Council, Newton-In-Bowland Parish Council, Waddington Parish Council, the Environment Agency and LCC Highways Development Control. Two representations objecting to the application had been received.

The Principal Planner presented a Powerpoint presentation showing a site location plan, aerial views of the site, the current approved final restoration and remaining mineral reserves. Also shown were photographs of the site, the remaining reserve area, site entrance, Slaidburn Road heading down to Waddington, Waddington village, Slaidburn Road at the top of Waddington Fell, Slaidburn Road heading towards Newton and Hallgate Hill rising up from Newton.

Mr Chris Sullivan, local resident, addressed the Committee. Mr Sullivan made it clear that his observations had been made prior to becoming a Parish Councillor and that his views were not being presented on behalf of the Parish Council. Mr Sullivan said the following:

''I live on Clitheroe Road which is the main route for vehicles in and out of the quarry. I was rather hoping by the end of 2022 that vehicles would have stopped. Clearly that extension was granted for a year. Because of the link between the quarry and the arisings from the HARP (Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme) project, we've rather got a Hobson's choice in Waddington, which is without the quarry as a receptacle for all the arisings, we would have a village through which large numbers of vehicles would have to pass.

The thing that I want to discuss today are the absolute fine detail of the timings of HARP. Sadly, over the last few years I've become a little bit of an anorak as far as the traffic management plan is concerned with HARP. And just to let everybody know that during the first 12 to 18 months of HARP, there will be vehicles using both Clitheroe Road and West Bradford Road to construct the river crossings over the River Ribble and over the Hodder at Newton. This will not involve vehicles with any arisings, because that can't take place until the construction camps are in place and those crossings are in place across the Ribble.

This proposal proposes that there will be vehicles leaving the quarry with minerals heading for Hanson Cement, and the shortest route to Hanson Cement is via West Bradford Road, which goes past the school with all its complications around traffic, and what I am proposing is that any link to the HARP scheme will be linked to the commencement of HARP, not to the commencement of the arisings from the tunnelling - and that's for a good reason. The traffic management plan, which has been proposed but not as yet accepted by highways, assumed there will be no outflow of minerals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

It was reported that, since the last meeting of the Development Control Committee on 17^th January 2024, eight decisions had been taken on development control matters by the Director of Environment and Planning, in accordance with the county council's Scheme of Delegation.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Development Control Committee will be held on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at 10.30 am in Committee Room B - the Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.

Resolved: That the next meeting of the Committee be held on Wednesday 24 April 2024 at 10.30am in Committee Room B – The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.