Former quarry storage plans rejected

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter 

Plans to use part of a former quarry next to a nature reserve for storing timber have been rejected by a council.

The proposal was put forward by the Hanbury Tenison family’s Pontypool Park Estate that had threatened to withdraw a licence that allows the wider part of the former Cwmynyscoy Quarry to be used as a nature reserve, and would have forced its immediate closure, if permission was refused.

However Torfaen Borough Council planners said using the site, which is in the open countryside, south of Pontypool and west of Griffithstown, is unacceptable and refused to grant planning permission.

Planning officer Justin Jones also said in a report the landowning family’s claims it could reopen the quarry, that overlooks homes on Cwmynyscoy Road, if the storage use was refused weren’t “viable” and there is no use designated for the site in the council’s development plan.

In his report, which rejected the application, Mr Jones said the decision couldn’t be influenced by the threat to close the nature reserve: “The comments from the applicant concerning the intension if this application is refused (i.e would withdraw the license that allows part of their land to be used as a nature reserve which would close the reserve down with immediate effect) are noted.

“However the application has been assessed in line with the development plan (and other material considerations) and the actions of the landowner to any decision made concerning this application is not a material consideration in the determination of this application.”

The estate said it intended using existing hardstanding at the quarry for storage, which it said would have only resulted in minimum noise in delivering and collecting material, and no development of the site would be required.

It was only clarified during the application process it was intended to use the site for storing felled trees. Torfaen council had previously taken enforcement action, in 2019, when it required storage containers to be removed from the quarry.

Objections

The proposal drew 11 objections including from Torfaen Friends of the Earth, the Friends of Cwmynyscoy Nature Reserve and the Gwent Wildlife Trust as the area is a Site of Importance to Nature Conservation or SINC. The former quarry also forms part of the Cwmynyscoy Quarries West Regionally Important Geodiversity Sites.

Mr Jones said the council’s ecologist and environmental regulator Natural Resources Wales hadn’t objected to the application, which they believed could be approved with conditions, and neither was there an objection from the highways department.

But he said “unexpected and load noise in an otherwise extremely quiet location” would “undermine” the nature reserve and storing “a significant raised expanse of timber” and car and vehicle parking would have an “adverse visual impact”.

Due to those reasons and the quarry’s location in the open countryside Mr Jones said the proposal would “undermine policy objectives to locate development in sustainable locations” and should be refused.

He also said as the quarry hadn’t been in operation since before 1976, the wider area is now a nature reserve and the site hasn’t been reviewed under current mineral policies the quarry is consideredt to be “abandoned” making the claim it could be reopened “unviable”.