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Hanson Withdraws Application at Last Minute
The much-delayed public meeting of Oxfordshire County Council’s Planning & Regulation Committee at which Hanson’s application was due to be heard was finally held on 23 November.

Expectations were running high following the revelation that OCC’s Head of Sustainable Development had recommended planning permission for sand extraction be rejected on the grounds that:

• The proposed development is not within an area identified for mineral working by the Oxfordshire Mineral & Waste Local Plan;
• The amounts of soft sand that Oxfordshire is required to produce under the South East Plan can be adequately met from existing or already authorised sites;
• The proposed workings are right next to a market garden, whose produce would be contaminated by the dust from the sand extraction.

However, just before the meeting started a capacity public audience of around seventy villagers from Longworth and Hinton Waldrist was advised that Hanson had withdrawn their application barely an hour and a half previously. The anger that this understandably generated amongst the audience was clearly reflected by Committee members.

“I feel as angry as you”, said Chairman Councillor Steve Hayward. “If and when Hanson resubmits their application, we will want reassurance that this action is not going to be repeated.”

Committee Member Councillor John Tanner advised us that “we should regard this as a victory: at the end of the day there is no planning application on the table: end of story.”

A Hanson spokesman subsequently claimed that the application was withdrawn because “we didn’t want to get to committee and get refused, so we will look properly at what the officers have said and resubmit.” However, he failed to explain why they waited until the last minute to do this - maximizing the inconvenience caused to all of us who needlessly attended the meeting – when they had known about the recommendation for refusal at least four days previously.

It seems inevitable, given the investment made to date, that Hanson will resubmit their application: it just remains to be seen when, and how they intend to effectively redress the original grounds for the recommended rejection. We intend to ensure that we are ready when they do. To quote LnS member Adam Ogilvie-Smith from his post-meeting interview with the Oxford Mail: “We’ve won the battle – but we need to make sure we win the war.”


Other News
• The Big Lunch
• LEN News - Christmas Tree Shredding
• Longworth Church Lights Up
Proposed site for sand extraction
 
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