Quarry arguments rumble on

Saddleworth Planning Committee

SADDLEWORTH Parish Council is to add its voice to the growing chorus of objection to plans to tip at the Birks quarry site in a detailed letter to the environment agency.

Although the consultation period has officially closed, it is understood that the environment agency is willing to take on board the views of the parish council, as it examines other objections between now and March 13.

Plans for the site, off the A62 Huddersfield Road on the Austerlands-Lees border, have been the subject of endless wrangling since planning permission was approved in 1988.

Issues currently being hammered out centre on the conditions of the tipping, including what can be tipped and issues around noise and pollution, and feelings are continuing to run high on all sides.

Outlining major problems, Councillor Barbara Beeley said: “No matter which part is looked at, the whole adds up to a serious threat to the quality of life for all those people who live on any side of that quarry. There will be lorries braking to enter the site, machinery working in the quarry — imagine 12 hours of those reversing beepers!

“There will be airborne lorry and machinery fumes, dust and fibres from the inert waste.”

Councillor Derek Heffernan said: “It’s a nightmare that’s about to happen.”

It has now emerged that the council is currently consulting lawyers to determine whether the planning permission is actually valid.

It is understood that the planning inspectorate granted permission on the basis that the tipping company agreed on access with the council.

But these details were not ironed out until six years after the original permission was granted — and planning rules dictate that work has to begin within five years of permission being granted.

Some tipping was done during the first five years, but the council will try to establish whether this was illegal, since the access issues had not been determined. Councillors resolved to write to the council to express their support for these investigations.

Confusion has also surrounded the council’s conduct during the consultation period.

It was understood that the council missed the deadline for objecting to the plans, but this was dismissed by Councillor Derek Heffernan, who insisted that Chief Executive Charlie Parker emailed the environment agency on the day of the deadline.

Perhaps summing up the confusion surrounding the whole issue of Birks Quarry, Councillor John Hudson said: “I have heard a different version of events tonight to what I heard at Oldham Council last week.

“I think we seriously need some clarification from the council about this issue. We need to know exactly what the facts are.”

The parish council is now to write to new environment minister Jane Kennedy to complain about the way in which the issue has been handled.


No go for house

COUNCILLORS gave the thumbs down to plans to change the use of offices at 10 Gibbs Close, Greenfield to a house.

The Greenfield and Grasscroft Residents’ Association has already voiced its concerns at the plans for the former Royal George Mills, which they say contravene instructions given by the secretary of state that the site was to be allocated for class B1 business accommodation.

One resident has already written to the local government ombudsman after original plans to convert an old warehouse were ignored and the warehouse demolished and replaced with a two-storey building with a bigger footprint.

Councillor Pat Lord said: “This looks more like Dallas than an office block. Employment opportunities will go if this is turned into a huge modern mansion and this is not what was passed.

Councillor Brian Lord said: “It makes you wonder how much the developers wanted it to be offices. I don’t think they tried sufficiently hard enough with their advertising.”