The headlines for those of you who don’t have time for the detail: (scroll on down if you do!)
On the gas-fired peaking plant application:
- Jones Brothers have now submitted their answers to the 14 questions that PEDW (the Welsh Government Inspectorate) had put to them.
- We are now urgently seeking Professionals / Experts to look more closely into all the defences that Jones Brothers have put forward – that may cost us some money.....
- ‘All interested parties’, including all of us, had until 17th October to comment formally on JB’s latest responses to PEDW – details below on how to do that.
- Caernarfon Lân have been invited by PEDW to be involved, on your behalf, in the Public Hearings on Noise, Air Quality and Planning Conditions – the dates for these are not yet known.
On the concrete-crushing application:
- Sian Gwenllian MS wrote to Dafydd Williams, Head of Planning in Cyngor Gwynedd about the disturbance to local residents from activities that Jones Brothers have been carrying out on the site.
- Dafydd Williams’ response revealed that the Company have been acting in breach of current planning conditions. Planning Officers told them “they should stop ..... as soon as possible”; but Caernarfon Lân Committee have gathered recent video evidence that they have not stopped!
- We wrote to the Planning Department to report the continued activity and have received a reply informing us that they have opened an enforcement case (reference number G24/0155) and required Jones Brothers to respond to the Planning Contravention Notice issued. The Planning Officer thanked us for gathering evidence and encouraged residents to send any more to cynllunio@gwynedd.llyw.cymru see below....
- If you have experienced any disturbance from activity on the site please email the Council about it (details below on how to do that).
- In our email to the Planning Department we also complained thatthe Company are not being held to account for breaching the planning conditions relating to requirements for site restoration, which were attached to the temporary permission they were granted for bypass work.
- We were also informed that The Public Protection Service are conducting a separate investigation of a Statutory Nuisance complaint from noise at the Seiont quarry site and demolition operations at the Peblig Mill Industrial Estate.
- We found and reported serious flaws in the Public Health Wales submission to Cyngor Gwynedd concerning the Concrete and access road proposals – details below....
- The Council’s consultation on this application closed on 7th October
- We have put in our formal request for a representative of Caernarfon Lân to speak at the Planning Committee Meeting to decide on the Application – we now know that will be held on the 9th of December.
More detail below on these headlines and copies of key documents:
On the gas-fired peaking plant application:
1) Jones Brothers’ answers to the 14 questions from PEDW:
This is the main document in Jones Brothers’ response to the 14 questions from PEDW – you can also download it straight from the PEDW site if you prefer, by clicking this link:
We have submitted our formal response (which was due on the 17th October) to these further defences put up by the Company.
This is what PEDW said:
“Our letter of 11.07.2024 confirmed that the Inspector had requested further information from the Applicant and Local Planning Authority.
The further information has now been submitted and is available to view online on the Case Work Portal:
https://planningcasework.service.gov.wales/ - Search for CAS-02628-Y1D2Z7
Look for the Documents beginning with ‘2024-09-03 – APP Further Information’ and ‘2024-09-05 – LPA Further Information’
If any party wishes to make any further representations, solely in relation to the documents named above, then they may do so by no later than 17.10.2024. Any representations received that are not in relation to the above named documents will be disregarded.”
All representations received will be published online to the Case Work Portal.
2) We have also been invited by PEDW, at our request, to be involved in three of the four public hearings that they expect to hold: Air Quality, Noise and Planning Conditions. We are leaving the hearing on Flood Risk up to the likes of NRW; however we will also attend that as observers, which all of you can do too - for each of the four hearings. As soon as PEDW notify us of the dates and arrangements for those hearings, we’ll pass them on to you – we suspect that they may not happen until after Christmas and we don’t know yet where or how they will be held – ‘face to face’, online or ‘hybrid’.
3) Our hunt for expert back up:
We have found some expert input to strengthen our arguments but we need more, both for our formal response to the latest JB submission and for our longer-term preparation for the public hearings, and we may have to pay for some of that expert input....
Between now and the Council’s Planning Committee meeting, and between now and PEDW’s public hearings, the work of the committee will be to further build our case against both proposals, strengthening it with the input of academic/professional expertise to match the professional arguments paid for by Jones Bothers. That academic/professional analysis of Jones Brothers’ consultants reports will also help our barrister build a strong case in our favour. Unfortunately such advice usually has a fairly high price tag on it and Caernarfon Lân has, so far, only a few hundred pounds in our bank account. That has come from very kind donations, for which we have been very grateful indeed!
We have written to several people and organisations asking for ‘pro bono’ (freely given) help and input, but also asking, if they are not in a position to offer us help for free, how much they would charge....
We have had two very encouraging offers of help so far – one, free of charge, on Jones Brothers’ Air Quality Report and one ‘at a reduced price’ on their Noise Report. As soon as we know exactly what help we will need to pay for we will come back out to you all with a revised funding target on our GoFundMe page and ask for whatever small contributions you could make to help buy the professional input that we need.
We will keep you posted on that in the hope that when the time comes you will be able to spare a contribution. Our treasurer is a professional person with experience of public sector auditing, so your money will be safe!
On the concrete-crushing application:
1) The Council’s consultation on this application closed on the 7th October and we’ve now been told that their Committee will meet to decide on it on the 9th of December. We have put in our formal request for a representative of Caernarfon Lân to speak at the Meeting and the Planning Team Officer who wrote to us has noted that “intention”, which hopefully means that our request will be granted.
2) In response to our Senedd Member Sian Gwenllian’s letter to Cyngor Gwynedd’s Head of Planning, Dafydd Williams concerning the disturbance to local residents from activities that Jones Brothers have been carrying out on the site, Mr Williams revealed that the Company have been found to be acting in breach of current planning conditions. Planning Officers told them “they should stop ..... as soon as possible”; but Caernarfon Lân Committee members have gathered recent video evidence that they have not stopped!
3) We have also complained to the Planning Department about the fact that the Company are not being held to account for breaching planning conditions relating to requirements for site restoration, which were attached to the temporary permission they were granted for bypass work.
You can read our letters to the Planning Department about these issues by clicking hereand here – and their response here.
If those of you who live in the surrounding area have experienced any disturbance from activity on the site please email the Council to tell them about it at: cynllunio@gwynedd.llyw.cymru If you wish to pass audio or video evidence to the Council and find that they cannot accept attachments over a certain file size, please let us know by responding to this email and we will help you get your evidence to them.
4) We have also found and reported serious flaws in the Public Health Wales submission to Cyngor Gwynedd – you can read our recent emails about this by clicking the following links:
https://cloud.caernarfonlan.cymru/index.php/s/tzdpGa36CmErFpf
https://cloud.caernarfonlan.cymru/index.php/s/LYX9DLdwS5mXoiN