Good news, in case you haven’t heard it..
The PEDW Inspector has REFUSED planning permission for the gas plant and the application for a concrete processing plant on the Seiont brickworks site has been withdrawn.
When Jones Brothers decided to withdraw their application, Gwynedd Council decided promptly to take enforcement action against Jones Brothers over their breach of planning permissions on the site. If you missed it, local residents had documented many large vehicles moving heavy stones and clear signs that something was still happening. The Council’s enforcement required them to clear the site - by 7th July 2025 - of all plant machinery, equipment, materials, buildings, structures, fences, tanks and containers that are not required for the restoration of the site.
They also required the submission of details of anything that would need to be retained on the site to carry out restoration work. The Council also set a deadline of 29th August 2025 for the submission of a 'detailed scheme of restoration and aftercare' of the site; this requirement was very specific in the details of what the submission should cover.
If fully complied with, this order should mark the conclusion of our battle to protect local residents and their environment. Given this, Caernarfon Lân have been watching closely what the company have been doing to comply with the Council’s enforcement notice and have been putting some straight questions to the Council about the progress being made towards proper restoration of the site.
Until a formal application for the restoration scheme is submitted to the Council, planning officers are not able to share publicly whatever pre-application suggestions the company is making to them. However, it isn’t over until it’s over - Jones Brothers could still propose an “alternative” scheme for restoring the site…
With that in mind, our next question to be put to the council is:
‘Are the pre-application discussions, currently being held with the company, simply about a genuine restoration proposal, or has an alternative scheme been proposed that comprises elements not connected to restoring the site to nature as required and expected?
All we can do until an application is submitted is continue to ask sharp questions, watch the site and make the feelings of the community widely known and understood.
Your Committee have therefore decided to:
- seek further answers, where possible, from the Council’s Planning Team;
- watch the site closely;
- write to Jones Brothers inviting them to meet with us to discuss the future of the site.
Also, as our work must clearly go on, quite probably for some time, we need to make you aware that, while all of your Committee give their time voluntarily to keep the work going and defend the community’s well-being, rights and interests, there are some financial costs that we have continued to bear, such as maintaining the website and a shared drive to keep our documents confidential, along with all the associated registrations, licenses and other IT and technical costs. We would also love to buy our pro-bono barrister a small gift to thank her for her invaluable work.
If you are able to contribute a small amount to help cover these costs, we would be very grateful. We have now closed our GoFundMe page, as our fundraising to pay for the expert consultants was successful and that fundraising campaign has ended. However, you can still give directly to our Caernarfon Lan bank account through a bank transfer - please contact us (gretel_yn_helpu@icloud.com) to receive the bank details.