Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has branded the County Council’s consultation on a proposed extension of the former ‘Tarmac Quarry,’ in Seisdon, an ‘utter disgrace.’
The original permission granted for the site - recently bought from Lafarge Tarmac by JPE Holdings Limited - dictates that the quarry must be returned to nature this year.
However, JPE Holdings Limited has applied to extend the license for the ‘winning and working of sand and gravel’ to 2016 and to extend the deadline for complete restoration of the site until 2018.
A series of local residents have got in touch with Gavin to raise their concerns over the brevity of the consultation period, which ends tomorrow.
The residents received a note from the Parish Council, on the 11th January, informing them that they had just three days to raise any objections.
This directly contradicts the information available on the District Council website, which states that the opening date for the ‘standard consultation’ was the 16th December and that it closed on the 6th January.
There continue to be no details about the consultation process available on the County Council website. Furthermore, the only efforts on the publicity front appear to have been a note at the Wombourne Library and Community Centre, three miles away.
Gavin said: “It is an utter disgrace that people have less than a week to object to this proposal.
“The County Council needs to extend the consultation period by at least a month to give local residents the opportunity to have their voice heard. I have called upon the County Council’s chief executive to take immediate action to extend the period for public comments, with immediate effect.
“The basis for the original planning consent was that the site be returned to nature by the end of this year and this is a very opportunistic application, to which I totally object.”
The controversial application follows numerous complaints by residents over HGV traffic travelling to and from the adjacent Seisdon landfill.
The issues raised include damage done to the road and verges, frequent incidents of dangerous driving and unacceptable levels of congestion along the route.