Brett set to consult on quarry plans for Hatfield Aerodrome site
Deborah Price, Local Democracy Reporter
Brett Aggregates will put in a second application to quarry on the former Hatfield Aerodrome. - Credit: Google
Brett Aggregates will not challenge the decision of the Planning Inspector to dismiss its application to quarry on the former Hatfield Aerodrome site.
But it will push ahead with a second application for the site, which was submitted to Hertfordshire County Council last year.
Brett wants to extract up to eight million tonnes of sand and gravel from the site – which sits between Smallford and Ellenbrook – over a 32-year period.
When its initial application was refused by Hertfordshire County Council, the company appealed to the Planning Inspectorate.
And in January – following a nine-day public inquiry in November – Planning Inspector John Woolcock determined that the application should NOT go ahead.
The company could have gone on to challenge that decision in the High Court.
But now – six weeks after the Inspector published his decision – the company has confirmed that it will not.
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And company representatives have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that – in light of the inspector’s findings – they have made some changes to their latest application.
“We currently have a second planning application which has been amended in light of the appeal Inspector’s comments, to include more detail in areas such as public access,” said a spokesperson for Brett Aggregates.
“Over the coming weeks we will consult with local groups regarding this application and take any feedback.”
Unlike the initial application, the latest plans – submitted in September 2021 – do not include the erection and operation of a concrete batching plant.
They stipulate that there would be no pumping from the ‘lower mineral horizon’ and that the distance between extraction in that horizon and the bromate plume is increased, from 50m to 100m.
And the access road from the quarry entrance would be moved by five metres to the east, in order to allow for additional acoustic screening.
At November’s inquiry Brett had asked whether the Inspector could consider the changes contained in the newer application.
But in his decision notice Mr Woolcock determined that it should be the plans as initially determined by Hertfordshire County Council that should be the subject of the appeal decision.
