Planning Application CB/10/02226/FULL – submitted on behalf of Biggleswade Town Council
On the 2nd June 2010 I sent an email to the Biggleswade Town Clerk:
Can you tell me what two individuals with surveying equipment are doing over Kitelands Recreation Ground, near the enclosed children’s play area ??
The reply was less than forthcoming:
I would imagine that they are surveying the site.
Not satisfied with that reply I asked again:
I expected a civil answer from you.
I would have thought the Town Council should know WHY they are doing this on their property.
Have the Town Council appointed them and if so WHY they are doing it, or shall I go and ask them??
The next reply was a little more enlightening:
The surveyors are appointed by the Town Council to carryout a survey of the entire site.
I responded:
Thank you for that. What's the big secret, is there any particular reason or did you just feel like spending some money??
The reply from the Town Clerk was:
There are no secrets we have carried out this process on other sites, the surveys can be useful in many ways to include submitting planning applications.
I am on leave now so should you have any other queries please contact enquiries@biggleswadetowncouncil.gov.uk
On the 2nd July 2010, Central Bedfordshire sent me a consultation letter for the above scheme. Perhaps this was just a big coincidence !!
On Planning Application forms nowadays at Section 15 there are a series of questions that need to be answered. This is a scan of the actual completed application form.
The answers are all in the negative but it is fairly common knowledge, that the recreation ground was built over contaminated land and is included in the Register of Contaminated Land, described as Pit 72, which was once used for depositing commercial and household waste. There is no need for alarm as the site was capped off properly and I know that regular methane and surface water run off testing is carried out.
A contamination assessment is merely a desktop study, which can be carried out quite quickly.
I pointed out to the Central Bedfordshire Planning Officer that the application should be declared invalid as the application was incorrect. I was told I should bring any issues up within the consultation period which was ending on 23rd July 2010. I supported the application but pointed out again that the application should be declared invalid.
On the 26th July the Planning Officer agreed and wrote to the Biggleswade Town Council Agent:
“ I refer to your planning application received 14 June 2010 in respect of the above, and write to advise you that this cannot be continued with owing to the following reasons:
1. During the statutory consultation process I have been made aware that this land is a former landfill site. This land is considered to be contaminated. Question 15 should have been answered and an appropriate contamination assessment should have been submitted. This application has been subsequently made invalid due to this information. This application will not be made valid until new application forms are submitted reflecting this information and the contamination assessment. A judgement can then be made about the appropriateness of this development. It is important to establish how deeply the landfill is buried to ensure the foundations of the play equipment would be safe, and also to ensure there would not be any significant dangerous substances or gas, there might also be issues arising over taking any matter away from the site.
It would be appreciated if the above requirements could be provided by 16th August 2010 in order to validate your application. Please quote the application reference at the top of this letter when responding. If I do not hear from you by this date, your application will be withdrawn and returned to you.
Apparently no action was taken on this letter until the Town Council meeting of 24th August. The application by this time was invalid. I was at the meeting and none of the Councillors seem to understand what the letter meant. They had never had to do this before, which is worrying since the contaminated land register came into effect in 1990.
It was “resolved” that Councillor Peter Vickers would discuss the application with CBC planning Department and report back to the Town Council.
Prior to the 28th September Town Council meeting I wrote to the Town Clerk:
The above application was sent back because your agent stated that the site was not contaminated or part of the site was not suspected to be contaminated.
It seemed to be common knowledge that the site was either contaminated, or adjacent land was contaminated . This was apparently not known by your agent and I am surprised that completed application forms are not shown to you before they are sent in.
As far as I know there were no objections to the application. The letter dated 26th July 2010, from the Planning Officer, Annabel Gammell gave you the opportunity to validate the application, by submitting an appropriate contamination assessment by 16th August ,which you have failed to do.
Contaminated land assessments were not a requirement when other applications were submitted for Kitelands. They are in this case, a paper exercise, gathering information from the various agencies and could have easily been completed within the timescales.
The minute shown for the 24th August 2010 Town Council Meeting is simply not correct. The application can be continued with and could have been validated and can still be resubmitted, albeit now with another planning fee, providing it is accompanied by a contamination assessment
At the 28th September meeting, (I was there), Peter Vickers said that he had spoken to David Lamb of Central Bedfordshire and they could either provide a contamination assessment or ask the company providing the play equipment to carry out a risk assessment. The minutes of the 28th September meeting say:
Matters Arising
Minutes of the Town Council Meeting held on 24th August 2010 – Page 5 – item 11c – The Town Clerk updated Members regarding the letter received from Central Bedfordshire Council.
Very informative and incorrect.
In the Biggleswade Chronicle of 5th November, Councillor Wendy Smith, Mayor wrote:
“Why can Central Beds construct new play areas without informing the town council, but create untold problems for us when we want to add equipment to an already long established play area?”
I just had to respond:
As far as the play area is concerned, Central Bedfordshire did not "create untold problems" for the Town Council, they just asked them to comply with planning regulations in providing required information. A paper exercise. They even gave them adequate time to do it, but they failed to do so. That’s another £167.50 of our money, wasted on the application alone, as they will have to reapply.
I have yet to see another aplication.
No comments:
Post a Comment