A Denholm resident and town councillor, Ann Anderson, together with colleagues, are celebrating victory at the High Court relating to Buck Park Quarry near Bradford.
It had been planned to deposit 2.5 million tonnes of controlled waste materials at the site, which had been approved by Bradford City Council in February this year. Mrs Anderson lives close to the site and considered it wrong to allow the stone quarry to be used for landfill.
It was claimed that the Council had failed to adequately consider a range of items including noise, the types of trees, shrubs and hedgerows needed for landscaping and the impact of the scheme on local populations of bats, badgers and peregrine falcons
The court heard that planning permission for the quarry was first granted in 1992. Conditions of the consent included a requirement that quarrying must stop by 2002.
1998 application accepted after appeal
In 1998 an application was submitted to the council to increase the depth of the workings and to dispose of 2.5 million cubic metres of controlled waste into the void over a 10-year period.
At the time Bradford Council refused permission but had to accept the application following an appeal.
Planning permission was then granted, subject to the requirement that quarrying must stop on the site no later than March 2006. The high court action therefore focussed on the waste management aspects of the application.
The applicant had to satisfy a number of pre-conditions before the planning consent could be implemented. The court was told that the information relating to landscaping was "inadequate" and that the council should have required a "a full inventory of trees, shrubs and hedgerows". There was also concern expressed relating to the information provided on a settlement pond a the site and also on temporary mitigation measures submitted.
In addition, an issue was raised that a decision on the Environmental Statement submitted with the application had been taken in 1998, whereas conditions had changed since that date including the presence of badgers, bat foraging routes, and the presence of nesting peregrine falcons. This therefore represented a "material change in circumstances".
Though the Bradford City Council and P. Casey (Enviro) Ltd opposed the challenge, Mr Justice Crane found in favour of Mrs Anderson and also refused an application by the Council to take the case to the Court of Appeal.