News today from Peter Clifford, the Chairman of Chilton Parish Council that Brett Aggregates have withdrawn their appeal with regard to the first refusal of their Quarry plans.
This is really good news, but it does NOT mean that the second application, heard just before Christmas, will not go to appeal. Brett’s have five months to decide whether to do so.
The Chilton site remains in the County’s Minerals Master Plan however, and the aim now must be to try to get it removed. A new Plan was introduced recently, and during discussions at the County Council, Colin Spence tried to get the site excluded. Since the site was ‘subject to a live planning application’ this proved to be impossible. However, the possibility of doing so if planning permission was refused was explicitly left open.
This makes the Chairman of Brett’s recent comment in the Sudbury Free Press that the site was ‘in the County’s Plan’ rather disingenuous since it is arguable that it is only there due to a technicality. Things have moved on in the area since the site was identified many years ago. At that time life in the Sudbury area was relatively tranquil and the nightmare that is the A134 a thing of the future. However, it has been successfully argued twice in recent months at the County Council Development Committee, that ‘times have changed’.
I took the photograph above, taken just before Christmas in Newmans Green, hoping that it might come in useful in the future. I am surprised to be using it so soon! It represents a Mexican stand-off between a Brett’s lorry and a farmer attempting to harvest his sugar beet.
