Item No 3 Planning Committee 19 June
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Item No 3 Planning Committee 19 June 2002 Applications to be determined by the County Council Report of John Suckling, Head of Planning. Purpose of the Report: To enable the Committee to determine an application for planning permission which has been received in accordance with the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. City of Durham District: Proposed increase in vehicle movements at Marks Quarry, Leamside, for Zero Waste Ltd. Background 1 The operator is seeking to vary planning conditions on the planning permissions for infilling at the Marks Quarry landfill site, east of Pithouse Lane, between West Rainton and Fencehouses. An increase in the number of vehicle movements permitted to enter and leave the site per day to an average of 142 and a maximum of 178 is sought. A location plan and key facts sheet setting out the proposed change in lorry movements and clarifying routeing is attached to this report. 2 The original permission for the extraction of brick making materials and coal followed by reinstatement by infilling with waste was granted on appeal in 1991. Subsequently, in 1995, planning permission was sought and granted for amendments to the scheme, including a reduction in the previously permitted timescale of 23 years down to 10 years. This was to be achieved by carrying out the latter phases of extraction simultaneously with the early phases of infilling. 3 Extractive operations started in 1995 but were carried out at a faster rate than envisaged in the planning permission. Various factors have however hindered progress of the infilling; in particular, commencement was prevented by a delay in obtaining a Waste Management Licence. Then, after the site was sold on to the current operator, the volumes of waste material imported to the site at first did not reach the quantities envisaged in the planning permission, after a licence was granted in November 1998. Over the past 18 months the amount of waste available has steadily increased. However, the operator considers that the conditions restricting average and daily lorry movements to 116(average) and 146 (maximum) will prevent completion of infilling within the permitted timescale. The current application is retrospective as the number of lorry movements at the site in recent months has at times breached the permitted limits. The proposal 4 The present planning permissions contain a restriction on the number of HGV's (heavy goods vehicles) using the site, which progressively reduces in 4 stages as the site progresses to completion. The site was first permitted to operate at higher rates of input, but is now in the fourth and lowest phase. The permissions require the site to be restored to topsoil by 30 September 2005, which is provided for by both a legal agreement and a bond arrangement. 5 The applicant first proposed increasing the number of vehicle movements to 260 per day (an increase of 114 over permitted levels), but in the light of local concerns about the impact of this level of movements on residential amenity in Woodstone Village, the submitted proposal has been amended to an increase of 26 per day average, 32 per day maximum, to totals of 142 per day (average), 178 per day 2 (maximum). These levels were previously permitted at this site by the County Council in order to reduce the timescale of the original permission for quarrying and infilling at this site from 23 years to 10 years, granted on appeal. 6 The operator also indicates that within six weeks, if permission is given, seventy per cent, rising in three months to eighty per cent of lorries will operate under contracts with particular waste hauliers, allowing the site operator to operate his own controls on the size and number of lorries per day. Moreover, these contracted vehicles will be required to use a specified vehicle route, shown on the attached plan. The current planning permission requires all HGVs leaving the site to turn north onto the C8b and travel to the B1284. The vast majority of vehicles then proceed to the A1 (M) via the A1052 and the A182, which takes the vehicles past the edge of Bournmoor. The operator is prepared to enter a legal agreement that all contracted vehicles will be routed northward on Pithouse Lane (C8b) to the junction with the B1284 at Woodstone Village, but then westward to the A167(T) at Chester le Street, then northwards to reach the A1(M), and vice-versa for vehicles approaching the site. Although advice can be given to drivers, it is difficult to require routeing compliance for the minority of non- contracted vehicles using the site. Planning considerations Policy 7 Relevant policies to this proposal are contained in the adopted County Durham Structure Plan [CSP] and the First Deposit Draft of the County Durham Waste Local Plan [WLP]. 8 The principle of infilling at the Marks Quarry site is established. The Committee therefore needs to consider whether the proposed amendment to traffic movements at the site raises significant environmental concerns such that the proposal would conflict with existing and developing waste disposal policy on the protection of the environment and amenity. Residential amenity 9 Lumley Moor Farm and Morton Grange Farm lie alongside the C8b and there are terraces of houses at Woodstone Terrace, Finchale Terrace, High Row and Middle Row in Woodstone Village, where there also is the access to the new Chester Moor housing estate. 10 Road C8b has been used by heavy goods vehicles visiting a succession of mineral and waste sites which have operated in the Leamside area since 1985. In terms of capacity and highway safety, the road is considered to be the most appropriate means of accessing the strategic road network. The use of the road by heavy vehicles in the past has, however, given rise to complaints from local residents. It is therefore appropriate to consider the environmental impacts of heavy traffic, notably noise and vibration, on residential amenity. 3 11 As the road continues to be used by HGVs associated with the current landfill operation, it has been possible to monitor the actual effects on living conditions at properties along the haulage route, when the site has been operating at higher than proposed levels of vehicle movements. Monitoring has been undertaken at a property fronting the road in Woodstone Village to record noise and vibration caused by HGVs passing. Monitoring has also taken place on a Sunday aiming to exclude the effects of lorry traffic associated with mineral or waste developments. The results show that there was an appreciable increase in noise (3 to 4dBa) attributable to heavy vehicle movements during hours of operation of the site. The monitoring also showed that the proximity of the residential properties to the carriageway of road C8b in Woodstone Village is such that noise levels are dominated by traffic movements along the road and exceed latest guideline figures for the protection of living conditions. 12 Vibration monitoring shows that the maximum PPV levels recorded indicate that while residents in the properties will be aware of vehicles passing, the PPV levels do not reach levels recognised as giving rise to complaint. The vibration levels although unlikely in themselves to give rise to complaint, are such that even if the residents of properties fronting the road do not see a lorry passing by, they will hear and feel the passage of the lorry. 13 The proximity of the properties to the carriageway means that an increase in HGV numbers will be noticeable to residents of Woodstone Village. The results of the noise monitoring show that residents of properties in Woodstone Village already experience relatively high levels of disturbance as a result of traffic. The present proposal will result in an added noticeable impact, in an already unsatisfactory situation. Landscape restoration 14 Policy 84 of the County Durham Structure Plan seeks to ensure that landfill sites are satisfactorily restored to a landform and after-use compatible with the surrounding area and that tipping does not impede or unduly delay the satisfactory restoration of mineral workings which are proposed, active or inadequately restored. 15 The site operator estimates that the present permitted limits on vehicle movements mean that there will be a shortfall of approximately 200,000 cubic metres of waste by 2005, when the present permission requires tipping operations to cease. The proposed level of vehicle movements should enable the site to be completed on time to the agreed landform. 16 However, under the terms of the legal agreement and bond arrangement which accompanies the permission for tipping at this site, a mechanism is in place to secure an alternative landform and restoration if the permitted levels have not been achieved within permitted timescale. 4 Need 17 The site operator seeks to justify the increase in vehicle movements on the grounds that there is a local and strategic need for landfill capacity in this part of the County. There is substance to this justification as the First Deposit Waste Local Plan notes there will be a continuing need for landfill capacity in the County for municipal and commercial / industrial waste. Furthermore, in the short term, it is likely that two large sites which currently receive these waste types in the north of the County will be full by the end of 2003. Consequently, until waste management options for these types of waste are brought forward and assessed through the Local Plan process, there will be a continuing need in the short term to accommodate the waste streams currently using the existing sites. The full utilisation of the permitted capacity at Marks Quarry would make a useful contribution to meeting this short term need.