The Council planning officers report has been published in anticipation of the planning meeting next week.
There's a couple of important bits:
"Recomendation
It is recommended that the application BE REFUSED for the following reasons:-
> The proposal is contrary to policy 4/8 of the North Yorkshire Mineral Local Plan as it would have an unnacceptable adverse impact on nationally important archaeological remains.
> The proposal is contrary to Policies 3/2, 3/3 and 3/4 of the North Yorkshire Minerals Local Plan in that the site is neither a Preferred Area or Area of Search nor does it constitute a small scale extension by virtue of its geographical extent and scale in relation to the existing quarry working, mineral quality and annual production."
Perhaps importantly, rather than simply defer the decision regarding the importance of the archaeology to English Heritage, which happened last time the report includes a lengthy assessment of the archaeology and concludes:
"It is our view therefore that this application to extract gravel from the Ladybridge Farm site will have an adverse impact on nationally important archaeological remains and be contrary to Mineral Plan Policy 4/8."
Now, I'm running a book on Tarmac's next actions:
2/1 - last minute withdrawal of application
3/1 - last minute attempt at a further deferal - due to wishing to modify the mitigation strategy cos all of a sudden they will be able to properly interpret the importance of the archaeology on site.
10/1 - Brave it out to the last and appeal is the decision goes against them.
Any takers?
Now before everyone starts jumping for joy let me just say that as far as I am concerned, this means that the real battle is only just beginning.
Up until now, we have been up against a company obviously wrecking nationally important archaeology and because of that and the planning rules we always stood a half decent chance of winning.
The next application will not threaten nationally important archaeology, it will just ignore any notion of setting.
The largest Neolithic settlement so far discovered in Britain to the best of my knowledge has been at Tarmac's quarry at Millfield. Here 150 pits and hearths were discovered.
The settlement remains associated with Ladybridge now come to around 100 pits and hearths and I estimate that less than 30% of the site has been excavated. The total extent of this I think will end up covering around 70 acres.
So, how big a setting would you think such an extansive site should have in its own right? Without taking into account Thornborough. 1ft? 10ft? Does it depend on the topography? is it a mixture of the two? Would we allow a return to "lake" in the northern side of the site so long as it is no deeper than the lake at Neolithic times? What about water levels in later years when we know the site was still being used for sacred purposes? Should we just set quite a large boundary and leave it be?
