This is a short report on how the Public Hearing days (for the gas-powered peaking plant) went on the 18th, 19th and 20th February - and to let you know where we think things could go from here…..
The first day’s session (18-02-25) on Noise was long and tough but our barrister, our consultant and we all felt that we managed to score some good solid ‘hits’. Some people who were listening in may have been unnecessarily worried by the ‘Conditions’ session at the end of the agenda - with its talk of ‘mitigation’ etc.; but our Barrister had previously reassured us about it as it’s simply standard procedure in hearings of this kind, providing a ‘without prejudice’ safety net in the event that the Inspector should finally decide she wants / has to approve it. Having good strong conditions in place, if that happens, will ensure that a bad result doesn’t turn into a truly dreadful one; so it’s really important to construct detailed and comprehensive conditions - preferably ones that the Applicants can’t bring themselves to accept….!
The second day on Air Pollution was a shorter session and by then we began to feel confident that we were on the 'winning side'…. Our Air Consultant had clearly gained the Inspector's interest and respect - and once again we seemed to have scored some very strong 'hits'. Some input from Gwynedd Council representatives was also very useful to our arguments - especially from the Public Protection and Biodiversity Teams.
There was much discussion about one of the draft conditions, which our consultant contributed a great deal to, and the Inspector asked the Council's Planning Officers to make changes that reflected those discussions and send them back to her by the following day. The Council officers were very grateful to have the expert input of our Air Consultant and, thanks to the professional collaboration, a much strengthened condition was drafted in the afternoon and submitted to the PEDW Inspector; but it is understood that the new condition was not acceptable to Jones Brothers representatives, who submitted a version of their own.
The third day was devoted to more work on conditions and both of our consultants joined to support our barrister and our representative in that session.
All in all we came out of these sessions with a good feeling about the way they had gone and we feel confident that our ‘team’ did the best they possibly could. Our Barrister remarked that we had given the Inspector plenty of reasons to turn down the application, which we hope and pray she will do….!
The final decision is delegated to the Inspector alone and she might well take many weeks or even months to arrive at that point. If she should happen to make the wrong decision and approve the application, our next options are first to see if Welsh Government Ministers can be persuaded to overturn the decision and then, failing that, to seek a Judicial review. With the strong start that we feel we have made thus far, we believe we’re in a fit state to carry on to Judicial Review should that be necessary…..
We would like to thank you all so very much for your continued support, encouragement and determination and for the wonderful financial donations that so many of you have made in response to our calls for help. Those donations have bought us the excellent professional input that quite clearly knocked holes in Jones Brothers claims and arguments over the course of the three hearings!
Should the battle go on, as it might very probably do, either because the decision goes our way and Jones Brothers lodge an appeal, or because the Inspector decides in favour of the application and we have to seek a judicial review, we are going to need continued financial support for the next round of professional input….; so if you haven’t yet got around to making a donation, or if you know someone else who might, please do visit our GoFundMe page and encourage others to do so!