New house - open cast mine

ed67812

We have just moved house and I went out for walk the other day. For some reason, I read a planning application on a telegraph pole and it talked about an opencast mine nearby. I did some research and it transpires that planning permission was granted in Dec 2012 for an open cast mine in fields nearby, due to take 3 years before regeneration of the mined area.

I have conducted research and this was granted subject to legal agreement and this has still not been reached. I have spoken to the Council Planners and they do not anticipate reaching agreement and I am told that it is likely that within months the permission will be withdrawn and the matter closed. Of course there is always the chance of another application in the future.

I'm not one to get hysterical about these things - whilst the back end of the mine during the last digging phase would be quite close, the entrance / exit is not and we would not suffer the traffic from the site (the plans involved a long access road linking to an A road some miles from here). I am also open-minded because there is a nearby open cast site that has been regenerated into a great country park. However, it still may have changed our approach to this property and we would certainly have done some real digging.

My question is, who should have found this out?
Our solicitors?
Me? (I did check nearby applications over the past year but this was 2012).

The vendors did not mention it on the property info sheet.

Any thoughts?

davidmcn

ed67812 wrote: »

we would certainly have done some real digging.

Boom-tish!

My question is, who should have found this out?
Our solicitors?
Me? (I did check nearby applications over the past year but this was 2012).

The vendors did not mention it on the property info sheet.

You're lucky if searches for planning applications cover immediately neighbouring properties, never mind proposals some distance away (what distance are we talking?).

Fuzzyness

mineral extraction planning applications are dealt with by the County Council rather than the district authority if you live in a two tier authority area. i'm sure the solicitor would have checked the district planning register for those type of applications but whether they also would carry out the same searches on the county council register is something i dont know.

if you on the other hand you live in a unitary authority the minerals application should show up on these searches.

ed67812

It is indeed a 2 tier authority. I learned it worked like this when I rang the District Council planners and they pointed me to the County Council.

The distance of the closest bit (the last bit due to be dug out) of the site was 100m on the original application, amended to 150m minimum from any property, and ours is one of the closest.

AlexMac

While I'm surprised that the local authority searches didn't throw this up, that's history, and you aren where you are.

If you mean that a new Planning Application has been submitted becuse the old 2012 one was granted but has expired as they usually do after 3 years ...
( https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200126/applications/58/the_decision_making_process/6 )
... then whether or not the Planning officers say its OK, I'd
- be objecting, by the deadline, and also
- encouraging all my neighbours to object and
- letting your Councillors (both District and County - find them at https://www.writetothem.com ) know you are objecting,

...so it doesn't get passed "on the nod" but at least has to go to a Planning Committee of local Councillors where you and other objectors can attend and make oral representations.

In my Council, this happens if 8 people object or if a Counillor "calls it in" .

If its had past approval, renewal is quite likely so don't get complacent!

Fuzzyness

ed67812 wrote: »

We have just moved house and I went out for walk the other day. For some reason, I read a planning application on a telegraph pole and it talked about an opencast mine nearby. I did some research and it transpires that planning permission was granted in Dec 2012 for an open cast mine in fields nearby, due to take 3 years before regeneration of the mined area.

I have conducted research and this was granted subject to legal agreement and this has still not been reached. I have spoken to the Council Planners and they do not anticipate reaching agreement and I am told that it is likely that within months the permission will be withdrawn and the matter closed. Of course there is always the chance of another application in the future.

sorry to get technical on you but there are a few things in your post you need to be aware of.

the notice you saw said an application was submitted in 2012. you then go on to say that this was subject to a legal agreement that has never been signed and the council planners commented that it was unlikely ever to be signed.

if the legal agreement has not been signed there will be no planning permission. if the permission has never been granted, it cannot lapse irregardless of whether this was three years ago or not. the permission would only commence if and when the legal agreement was signed which as it sounds was never signed.

unless there has been another application i'd be inclined to think that this particular development inst going to go ahead. i take it they havent started digging?

it is also unusual that a planning authority would let negotiations on a legal agreement drift for this length of time.

ed67812

Fuzziness, you are right. I didn't word it very well. All documents show the planners recommended granting it subject to legal agreement. So the application is still live.

The planner told me that it is a case of their department being snowed under and that was her honest is treason as to why this hasn't been formally rejected already, now that it is clear an agreement will not be reached.

The last application had high numbers of objections, which is possibly why legal agreement cannot be reached as there were clearly unacceptable things in the original application like proximity to houses, hours of operation etc.The planners made clear a lot of the original plan would need to change and a lot of community projects were required to.mitigate three years of disruption.