Recent Comments on HU12 generating debate

We recently received an email from ABP via Montagu Evans indicating that they are trying to set up virtual calls for the 2nd of March 2021. A ONE-hour virtual call or two ONE Hour calls will not resolve this situation or bring about any resolution when they are asking for 10 speakers in that period. This Public consultation needs to be done face to face around a table with real people asking real questions. In our opinion, this cannot and will not be achieved by a one-hour video call. This is totally unacceptable. We fully understand the urgency of the applicant, but we feel that the lack of technical capability from many of the older members of the community will put them at a distinct disadvantage. We feel it is paramount that all those wishing to have a say can do in a familiar and safe environment.

We feel the applicant must do more to recognize the importance of communities in submitting planning applications. There is much that the applicant can do and should do to make it easier for communities to get involved in shaping local planning applications. During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen several major projects with large opposition outside of our region gain approval in a virtual zoom meeting without opposition. We believe it is only fair that any Public Consultation for 18/04071 and/or 18/01952 be delayed until such times that they can be aired in a public forum and attended by members of the Public. We do not feel a zoom call will allow the various opposition groups to have a fair say. It is in the people of Paulls interest to protect their local population and to give them a say in such important decisions in a democratic society. The applicant is trying to rush this through yet again and only paying the public lip service with a one hour zoom call. We feel the clue is in the name “Public Consultation”.

We are also concerned that due to the nature of virtual calls that people can attend whose identity cannot be verified, leaving the process open to misuse and mischief. This concerns the residents of Paull who are more than willing to disclose their identities in an open forum with the applicant. We feel that a Public Consultation should be just that.

We asked ABP to move the date to when the COVID-19 pandemic is declared over which we now know will be June 2021 and today we received a response from ABP saying that the 2nd March 2021 is the set date and that’s when it will go ahead. This response shows yet again that ABP does not intend to listen to the people of Paull or Hedon but to do what they did last time and say this is what you having!

This is a bad day for democracy when a private company can ride roughshod over the general public in order to tick a box for protocol to be able to build on a piece of land that is burning a hole in their pocket.

I emailed Graham Stuart today please find his response below. Kind regards Amanda Canavan

Dear Amanda

Many thanks for your email today, and for taking the trouble to photograph and send the leaflet, which I had not seen.

I have now emailed ABP with a formal request to delay the consultation until local residents all have an opportunity to participate.  Now that we can look forward to a stage when either public meetings or staffed exhibitions could be held, without involving more than a few months’ delay, I have told ABP that I think it is a reasonable request to make.

I will let you know what response I receive. 

Kind regards

GRAHAM STUART

I found it instructive to look at the documents associated with the Peak Resources application for a very similar plant on the Teesside Wilton site which was approved by Redcar and Cleveland with planning reference R/2017/0876/FFM. There it was intended to use a Tanzanian ore and explicitly mentioned thorium in their detailed Environmental Statement. In their process the impurities of iron and trace amounts of thorium which were present in the filtrate after acid leaching were precipitated with lime to produce a waste filter cake which was to be disposed of with the waste filter cake from an effluent treatment plant amounting to 12,000 tonnes per annum. In their case this was to be sent for landfill at a local hazardous waste landfill site which was identified in the Environmental Statement.. Assessment of the radioactivity levels is needed to determine how this is handled and what regulations apply to it. The information currently provided for Saltend is inadequate to determine the application.

There is broad agreement here from local Labour and Conservative representatives that the Crematorium would be a welcome facility for the area. But as it stands the plan has absolutely no provisions to address the traffic problems in Preston and Hedon, or more specifically the entry, just near the dog-leg junction on Lelley Road. If East Riding Council, who are proposing the development, cannot address the problems it will exacerbate of traffic then the Planning Committee should refuse permission until it is addressed.

Lelley Road has a 60mph limit, so to have the entrance directly off there will increase the danger of accidents as funeral corteges will be travelling at a much more sedate and dignified speed.
How long before there would be a pile up involving a grieving family ? The prospect is appalling.
The obvious solution would be a roundabout to accommodate the dog-leg and entrance to the Crematorium which would slow all traffic.

But we also need a review of the potential for the bypass of Hedon and Preston to the east. This could come up from Thorn Road to the Lelley Road and remove all the North-South traffic from our narrow medieval high streets.