Two public meetings have been held in Hesleden WMC recently, both intended to help residents get a full understanding of a current planning application seeking consent to extend the time allowed to remove spoil and minerals from the pit heap in the village.
Details of the first public meeting held on Sunday 27 February 2022 can be found here: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/02/hesleden-pit-heap-planning-application.html
The second meeting held last week on Wednesday 16 March 2022 was intended to get answers direct from the developers and the planning office. Again it was hoped that this would help residents when they submit their comments to the planning office as part of the public consultation exercise accompanying the planning application process. Details of the second public meeting can be found here: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/03/hesleden-residents-in-show-of-unity.html
At the close of the second meeting residents were urged to use the time available between now and the publication of the planning report to submit their comments to the planning department either through the council's planning portal at: https://publicaccess.durham.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=R58R0BGD0ER00 or via the case officer Chris Shields who can be contacted direct at: chris.shields@durham.gov.uk
As I mentioned at both public meetings the most important part of the planning process is making sure that members of the public have every opportunity to let the planning department know what they think about a particular planning application - so to help residents I thought it might be useful to reproduce an article I wrote earlier about the planning process and how planning applications are decided: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-planning-process-and-how-planning.html
So now that residents have all the information they need to make an informed submission to the planning office the next step is to make sure they know how to register their comments - and importantly, how to use what planners call material planning considerations when making their submissions. To help with those issues I’ve included a link to the council’s planning site: https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/8276/View-and-comment-on-current-planning-applications
Please make every effort to get in touch with the planning department to let them know haw you feel about this planning application. I hope the links to the guidelines on this page will help you to do so.
