Campaigners disappointed at quarry decision

Anthony Lewis Local Democracy Reporter

Campaigners have expressed their disappointment at plans for a material recovery facility at a local quarry being approved following officers’ advice that it would be difficult to defend refusal at an appeal.

Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT)’s planning committee on Thursday, December 5, voted to approve plans for an aggregates recovery facility at Forest Wood quarry in Pontyclun despite having previously indicated they were minded to refuse it.

This application was originally reported to the committee in July when councillors voted that they were minded to refuse the application, against the officer recommendation.

Concerns

Councillors raised concerns in respect of highway safety, the amenity impact of HGV traffic and the visual impact of the development so a decision was deferred for the potential strengths and weaknesses of going against the recommendation to be considered.

The planning report said that due to the complex nature of the application and officers’ concerns that a refusal would be difficult to defend at appeal, in view of the limited evidence available, the council obtained legal advice on the merits of refusing the application for the reasons proposed by committee members.

The report said: “Members are advised that in your officers’ opinion it would be difficult to defend a decision to refuse the application should it be appealed by the applicant.”

“Counsel’s advice is that the council would be at a very high risk of an adverse costs award at appeal should the application be refused for the reasons given.

“It is therefore recommended that the reasons, recommendation, planning obligation and conditions set out within the original report are appropriate.

Statement

In a statement, the campaign group, Safe Roads Pontyclun, said: “Yesterday afternoon (Thursday, December 5) a decision was made by RCT‘s planning and development committee to approve the planning application for Forest Wood – despite this being refused in July, 2024.

“We are disappointed by yesterday’s decision but it was inevitable as the councillors were given a legal opinion to back up officers views, despite the legal counsel being provided with only one side of the story.

“While officers outlined the risk of appeal by the applicant if they refused, the committee were not informed of the risk of judicial review by Safe Roads Pontyclun if agreed.

“We will seek our own legal opinion on matters that were not addressed by the council today, including the environmental unlawfulness of the quarry as a whole.

“This is just another stage in our journey and we will continue until the residents of Pontyclun are listened to and protected by the council that they elected.

“Safe Roads Pontyclun would like to thank the two councillors that supported the motion to reject.”

Jim Bailey, the council’s head of planning, told the committee that the council and councillors had received emails suggesting that the committee minutes from the July meeting were misleading but he said that they had been confirmed as an accurate record.

He also mentioned the Review of Minerals Permission which officers were exploring and seeking further advice on but added that those issues didn’t impact on the ability to determine the application.

The issues of Environmental Impact Assessment and screening were also raised and Mr Bailey said this current application was the subject of a screening back in December, 2022, and it was the view of the council that the development of a recycling and recovery facility did not constitute an Environmental Impact Assessment development with a decision reached having regard to cumulative impacts relating to the existing development and the context of the site.

There was also a suggestion that updated traffic data was now relied on but officers didn’t feel that this was the case and didn’t feel there were any discrepancies.

Mr Bailey also said that the council’s ecologist had raised no objection and added that Welsh Government had decided not to call the application in and so it was for the council to decide.

“Emotive issue”

Councillor Jayne Smith, a committee member, said it was an “incredibly emotive issue” and not an easy decision.

She said she had gone back through the application and reports hoping to find something she could hook on to but she couldn’t find any material planning matters which would lead them to reject it.

Councillor Mike Powell, another member of the committee, said he’d argue that they had sufficient information to come up with very good reasons to refuse the application.

He said it was more than a worthy application of the Well-being of Future Generations Act to refuse the application.

Cllr Powell said there would be an increase in adverse environmental pollution and referred to the publication “Health Matters: air pollution.”

He asked who was bearing the burden of the financial benefit to the applicant and said it would be the general public.

Cllr Powell suggested that they add reasons for refusal which included the increased adverse environmental pollution and the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

Councillor Danny Grehan, a fellow committee member, said they had to look at what was right and that there were lots of things they could reject.

He said the increasing number of lorries was going to have a big effect on roads and on people living in Pontyclun as well as the dust from the increase in works from the quarry.

The application includes a planning obligation restricting output to 600,000 tonnes a year from the facility.