Planning decision - permission refused for new quarry at Saintfield Road, Lisburn
Date published:
Full planning permission for a large quarry on land between the Saintfield Road and the Creevy Road near Lisburn in County Down has been refused.
The proposal was for the excavation of 500,000 tonnes gritstone per annum from a 9.6 hectare area through drilling and blasting. The proposal also involved a new access to the Saintfield Road, a compound area with car parking, office, canteen, laboratory, wheel wash and weighbridge and storage shed and the formation of visual screening bunds with flooding of the quarry void at the end of 20 year extraction period to form a lake at 130 Saintfield Road, Lisburn, Co Down, BT27 6YW.
The Department has today published the independent report and recommendations prepared by the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) following a public local inquiry into the proposal held in March/April 2017.
The PAC report includes full consideration of the planning issues and recommends that planning permission is refused. Importantly, the report found that there was unacceptable uncertainty about the impact on people’s living conditions and amenity as a result of noise from the proposed operations. The economic benefits of the proposal were not considered to outweigh or override the well founded objections to the proposal.
In arriving at the final decision the Department carefully considered and agreed with the independent report and recommendations.
The Department remains cognisant of its statutory duty to process planning applications and reach decisions on planning related matters. On that basis, the Department believes that it is in the public interest to take this decision without further delay. The Department will continue to apply these principles to other decisions as and when they are ready to be taken.
Notes to editors:
1. Planning application S/2014/0686/F was submitted on 8 October 2014. The applicants are Conexpo (NI) Ltd.
2. The application is a Regionally Significant application under Section 26 of the Planning Act (NI) 2011 and was processed by the Department for Infrastructure’s Strategic Planning Division.
3. The application was for the development of the winning and working of mineral, associated mobile primary crushing and screening, access to the public road and ancillary 3 No. buildings (office, canteen and laboratory), portal steel shed, weighbridge/wheel wash, earth embankments and landscaping with restoration to nature conservation habitats and a lake at 130 Saintfield Road, Lisburn, Co Down, BT27 6YW.
4. The Department received in excess of 2700 letters of objection and 4 letters of support in relation to the application.
5. The PAC report can be found through Public Access on the Planning Portal: www.planningni.gov.uk using the reference number S/2014/0686/F.
6. All media queries should be directed to the Department for Infrastructure Press Office on 028 9054 0007 or email: press.office@infrastructure-ni.gov.uk. Out of office hours please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07623 974383 and your call will be returned.
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