This year marks the 10th anniversary of the community-led campaign to stand together against the disruption caused by the ongoing works to excavate spoil from the former pit heap in Hesleden.
Now seems as good a time as any to recap on how the local campaign has developed over the last 10 years, and use that collective experience to prepare ourselves for the committee stage of the planning process.
The initial plans to remove the pit heap were first put before residents back in 2013, and it was from that early stage that the residents of Hesleden and the surrounding villages first came together alongside their local representatives to campaign against the works going ahead: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2014/04/objections-to-removal-of-hesleden-pit.html
However, despite well-organised and well-led community opposition the company was given consent to remove spoil from the pit heap for a period of two years. These were the issues I raised on behalf of residents when the first plans were put before the planning committee back in 2016. Sadly the same issues are still facing us today: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2016/01/hesleden-pit-heap-removal-to-go-ahead.html
Works began on site in 2018 and since that time local councillors and representatives from the residents’ association have continued to raise with the developer any ongoing concerns expressed by local residents and businesses through the community liaison group established for that purpose.
In 2022 the company submitted a second planning application seeking consent to extend the works for a further 10 years. Unsurprisingly this did not go down at all well with many of the residents in Hesleden and the surrounding communities, especially those in the immediate vicinity of the works who had suffered years of disruption, dirt and inconvenience. These impacts included both full and empty wagons thundering along Gray Avenue, traffic issues along the B1281 between Hesleden and Castle Eden and noise and dust almost everywhere in the village itself. There were also additional concerns expressed about the impact the development was having on wildlife in the dene and surrounding areas. These were all issues that I’d warned years before would happen if the development was given planning permission.
We are now approaching an important milestone in our campaign. Although nothing has yet been confirmed, we have been advised that the planning application seeking consent to extend the operation could be placed before the planning committee at county hall for a decision as soon as May.
For that reason we need to prepare for the planning committee stage, whenever it happens - and the overriding priority at this stage is that we remain united as a community in representing the views of our residents and businesses. It’s also vital that we make sure that our community voice is heard beforehand, so if you haven’t already done so please submit your comments to the council using the link at the end of this article.
When submitting your comments please remember that you should use only relevant ‘material’ planning considerations in your comments. We have only one chance at the planning committee meeting to put our case. If we spend our time raising matters that are not relevant in planning terms we risk wasting that opportunity. We’ve got to focus on convincing the planning committee that our case is strong and built on ‘material’ evidence. Full details of what is and what isn’t a ‘material’ planning concern are shown in the link at the end of this article.
Over many years members of the parish council and the local residents’ association have been integral to the campaign, so arrangements have been made to meet up with those formal, organised community representatives to update on progress. As we prepare our approach to the rest of the campaign we’ll need to look at how we want to address the planning committee. This means that we’ll need to coordinate the issues we’re going to focus on at the committee. It goes without saying that it’s essential we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. That means we need to stick together - and that leads to the final key ingredient of any community campaign: Unity.
I’ve been contacted by several residents over the past week or so who are concerned about recent local developments. Apparently there have been moves to use our local campaign as a platform to promote a party political election candidate. If that’s true there’s a real risk that at this late stage the community will fracture and years of campaigning will be undone in a flash.
From the very start, this campaign has always been about our community, and never about party politics. It’s essential that now more than ever before we stand together around a common cause and a mutual trust built up over ten long, hard years of campaigning.
Fractured communities don’t win campaigns. Our first priority must be to stand together.
Please follow the links below for background information and for additional links to help you submit your comments to the planning portal:
Timeline of developments, from 2013 onwards: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/03/hesleden-pit-heap-timeline-of.html
Submitting your comments to the planning portal: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-to-submit-your-comments-to-planning.html
Planning process details: https://www.durham.gov.uk/article/8276/View-and-comment-on-current-planning-application