Cranleigh brickworks appeal success

The brickworks site south of Cranleigh was formerly used as a chemical works which left the land contaminated with heavy metal residues. SCC declared that this site was in need of remediation. CPRE argued ‘enabling’ development was wholly inappropriate if the effect was to substitute one unsustainable development for another, and the appeal was refused

 

CPRE Surrey was present at a Public Inquiry in October to hear the appeal by US clean-up company Cherokee against refusal by Waverley Borough Council to allow development of the former brickworks at Cranleigh. The site to the south of Cranleigh in open countryside was formerly used as a chemical works which has left the land contaminated with heavy metals residues. Surrey County Council declared that this site was in need of remediation but it was not suggested that this was urgent.

 

Cherokee acquired the site and then claimed that the only way to pay for its clean-up was by way of an ‘enabling’ development of up to 170 houses. This was strongly opposed by CPRE, by Cranleigh Brickworks Action Group, and by Waverley Borough Council.

 

CPRE made representations that:

 

a) ‘Enabling’ development was wholly inappropriate if the effect was to substitute one unsustainable development for another.

 

b) The Dept for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) should not be able to get out of its statutory obligations to clean up the site by pleading poverty and shift on to the local community the cost of the remediation by the grant of planning consent which would never be given in the absence of contamination.

 

c) Enabling development in this case would drive a coach and horses through the planning laws and result in the destruction of open countryside and landscape.

 

d) Palliative measures to contain the pollution were clearly feasible and less costly but were not attractive to Cherokee and were not acceptable to DEFRA (who took no part in the Appeal hearing) on the assumed ground that it did not choose to make the moneys available for the clean up of the site.

 

 

The Planning Inspector presented his findings to the Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Ruth Kelly MP, who dismissed the appeal on sustainability grounds, vindicating the arguments submitted by CPRE.