Late last week we were informed by a third party that there had been developments in the planning appeal process involving works on the site of the former pit heap in Hesleden. Essentially, we were told that the planning team had withdrawn one of the current enforcement notices against the company with the intention of issuing another enforcement notice - which on the face of it appears to be a tactical move towards reaching a 'satisfactory end result'.
The first point to make is that we are less than happy that as local members we were not informed of this development and we were left to pick the information up second hand. Our approach in everything we do is always to keep our residents up to date with what's going on in their patch. Clearly this is impossible if we are not told in advance of critical issues which directly affect our communities. This isn't the first time we've been left in the dark on this particular matter. The council must manage its communications better if it wants to be seen as a credible source of public information.
In addition we have concerns about what this latest development will mean for the ongoing planning appeal process and the outcome that we've pressed for since day one - to bring about an end to works onsite to prevent any further misery and upheaval for our residents.
However it's early days and we need to know more about how this latest development plays out. With that in mind we've arranged to meet the planning team later this week, after which we'll update on the current position. In the meantime I've published below the planning team's response to my earlier correspondence setting out my concerns about this latest development and the way it's been handled.
Morning Rob
I had discussed this case with the team last week and we were looking get something out to you and Stacey on this ahead of the web site being update – apologies we did not manage to do this, which I appreciate is far from ideal.
However, following protracted legal discussions between ourselves and the operators planning lawyer over the last few months, it was considered that in order to achieve a satisfactory end result in the matter a new Enforcement Notice should be issued. We have therefore had to exercise our powers under Section 173A of the Town and County Planning Act 1990 (as amended) to withdraw the current Notice alleging a breach of condition(s) of planning application DM/19/02315/VOCMW. However this course of action will allow a revised Enforcement Notice to be issued and it is the team’s intention to work on this as soon as possible and look to get the Notice issued in the near future. No doubt once this further Enforcement Notice has been issued by ourselves this will lead to a further appeal being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate and you (and the wider residents) will be duly notified of this.
In discussion with the team over the last few weeks it is clear this is a highly complex case with some challenging legal issues; although we also fully appreciate the public perception angle too. It would be helpful to get some time in with you so we can bring you up to date.
