Thursday, April 06, 2006
January 2006
January 2006
Lorry Watch
In November Keith Shaw one of the highway network managers for Bucks County Council made a presentation of the Local Transport plan to a joint meeting of parish councils for the Ivinghoe Division. I brought up the subject again of a weight limit on Ivinghoe High Street and Marsworth Road. Keith told the meeting that recent environmental weight limits had been challenged by the road transport lobby and taken to public enquiry. In his opinion the most effective way to prevent unnecessary through traffic by heavy vehicles was to contact the lorry companies. He volunteered to do this if people could let him know which firms were involved. You can either contact him direct or through me.
Tring Station Bus
Following BCCs unsuccessful attempts to resurrect our own service by combining it with the Tring Station to Aldbury bus, I have joined forces with the Hertfordshire County Councillor for Tring to try and get Bucks and Herts around the table to see sense. With the mayhem of closing the new bit of the station car park the future of Tring station may soon depend on good bus services.
Cheddington station
The off peak train service from Cheddington now takes only 42 mins to Euston, leaving at 32 mins past the hour, but don’t get caught without the £4.00 for the car park. Because parking along station road forces cars on to the wrong side of the road along a bend, the police are blitzing parked cars for obstruction. (Peak train times are still half hourly.)
Time extension to Ivinghoe Aston Quarry applied for
On 18th January the Ivinghoe Aston Quarry Liaison Committee met to hear the details of a planning application submitted by Clark Contracting to Bucks County Council in late December to extend operations at Ivinghoe Aston Quarry for a further 12 months, and question the applicant and planning officer.
Their stated reason for the application is that in the early years of operation before the exemption of restoration sites from landfill tax, they received very little material to fill the site in the face of competition from unlicensed sites which were never liable for the tax. After the site was exempted, business picked up but remained restricted to the agreed number of lorry loads per day, so they have been unable to complete the restoration within the required timescale.
Additionally in recent years operators of such sites have been directed by the government to recycle as much material as possible, so an additional 15% of material has been needed to complete the scheme.
The application states that from December 2005 to June 2006 material will still be brought to the site as at present, with recycling continuing, although topsoil will remain on site for final restoration.
From June to August phase 1 and phase 3 will be restored. In September the bund around Briar Bush House will be removed and phase 2 will be restored and the area of the recycling plant. Finally from October to December the restored area will be sown, the wheel wash removed and restored, the buildings dismantled and recycling equipment removed.
All existing conditions will still be applied to the operation including the financial bond in case of defaulting on the scheme.
Technically three applications have been made, the main one being the extension of operations as outlined above, with separate applications for the recycling centre and the buildings to remain on site for the duration.
Comments can be received for inclusion in the report to committee up to the end of January, although late submissions will be taken in to account. The applications can be found on the Bucks County Council website www.buckscc.gov.uk numbered 98/0116/AMI; AWD/0991/93; 96/0919/AWD.
I called the committee together as soon as I received the details of the application, as a means of understanding this application, and getting an informal update on progress with quarry 2 at Pitstone from Clarks who also lease that site. The legal agreement binding conditions on the landfill permission for part of quarry two has been 18 months in the making and is still not complete. The conditions include a geological liner and pollution control measures imposed by the Environment Agency. Once this legal agreement is signed a license to operate must be applied for to the Environment Agency and may take up to a further 12 months to complete. The operator of Ivinghoe Aston has personally undertaken not to begin any operations in quarry 2 until the Ivinghoe Aston scheme is complete.
Lorry Watch
In November Keith Shaw one of the highway network managers for Bucks County Council made a presentation of the Local Transport plan to a joint meeting of parish councils for the Ivinghoe Division. I brought up the subject again of a weight limit on Ivinghoe High Street and Marsworth Road. Keith told the meeting that recent environmental weight limits had been challenged by the road transport lobby and taken to public enquiry. In his opinion the most effective way to prevent unnecessary through traffic by heavy vehicles was to contact the lorry companies. He volunteered to do this if people could let him know which firms were involved. You can either contact him direct or through me.
Tring Station Bus
Following BCCs unsuccessful attempts to resurrect our own service by combining it with the Tring Station to Aldbury bus, I have joined forces with the Hertfordshire County Councillor for Tring to try and get Bucks and Herts around the table to see sense. With the mayhem of closing the new bit of the station car park the future of Tring station may soon depend on good bus services.
Cheddington station
The off peak train service from Cheddington now takes only 42 mins to Euston, leaving at 32 mins past the hour, but don’t get caught without the £4.00 for the car park. Because parking along station road forces cars on to the wrong side of the road along a bend, the police are blitzing parked cars for obstruction. (Peak train times are still half hourly.)
Time extension to Ivinghoe Aston Quarry applied for
On 18th January the Ivinghoe Aston Quarry Liaison Committee met to hear the details of a planning application submitted by Clark Contracting to Bucks County Council in late December to extend operations at Ivinghoe Aston Quarry for a further 12 months, and question the applicant and planning officer.
Their stated reason for the application is that in the early years of operation before the exemption of restoration sites from landfill tax, they received very little material to fill the site in the face of competition from unlicensed sites which were never liable for the tax. After the site was exempted, business picked up but remained restricted to the agreed number of lorry loads per day, so they have been unable to complete the restoration within the required timescale.
Additionally in recent years operators of such sites have been directed by the government to recycle as much material as possible, so an additional 15% of material has been needed to complete the scheme.
The application states that from December 2005 to June 2006 material will still be brought to the site as at present, with recycling continuing, although topsoil will remain on site for final restoration.
From June to August phase 1 and phase 3 will be restored. In September the bund around Briar Bush House will be removed and phase 2 will be restored and the area of the recycling plant. Finally from October to December the restored area will be sown, the wheel wash removed and restored, the buildings dismantled and recycling equipment removed.
All existing conditions will still be applied to the operation including the financial bond in case of defaulting on the scheme.
Technically three applications have been made, the main one being the extension of operations as outlined above, with separate applications for the recycling centre and the buildings to remain on site for the duration.
Comments can be received for inclusion in the report to committee up to the end of January, although late submissions will be taken in to account. The applications can be found on the Bucks County Council website www.buckscc.gov.uk numbered 98/0116/AMI; AWD/0991/93; 96/0919/AWD.
I called the committee together as soon as I received the details of the application, as a means of understanding this application, and getting an informal update on progress with quarry 2 at Pitstone from Clarks who also lease that site. The legal agreement binding conditions on the landfill permission for part of quarry two has been 18 months in the making and is still not complete. The conditions include a geological liner and pollution control measures imposed by the Environment Agency. Once this legal agreement is signed a license to operate must be applied for to the Environment Agency and may take up to a further 12 months to complete. The operator of Ivinghoe Aston has personally undertaken not to begin any operations in quarry 2 until the Ivinghoe Aston scheme is complete.
# posted by Avril Davies @ 7:51 PM 
