CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after a plan to open a landfill site in Westerham was rejected.
The proposal to transform Covers Farm, on the Squerryes Estate, has been refused by Kent County Council after almost eight months of controversy.
A dramatic u-turn over controversial plans to build on Green Belt land has been made after huge public outcry.
But despite welcoming the reversal, angry campaigners have questioned how much the “shambolic” consultation into the Gravesham plans cost and accused leader of the Labour-run borough council, John Burden, of a serious error in judgement.
Cllr Burden unveiled the contentious proposals last year, which outlined the development of up to 920 new homes on Green Belt land in areas including Meopham, Istead Rise and Culverstone as part of the area’s draft Local Development Framework.
Thousands of people wrote to the council opposing the plans and in a shock u-turn Cllr Burden recommended they be scrapped.
THE news that personal locater beacons (PLBs) can now be legally used throughout the UK has been welcomed by NFU Scotland as a ‘potentially lifesaving tool’ for farmers.
PLBs (known as EPIRBs for sea travel and ELTs for air travel) are already available for use in the aviation and maritime industries as part of the existing licensing and registration regime, regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on behalf of the Department for Transport.
Personal locater beacons could prove to be a valuable tool to ecologist such as myself who regularly need to undertake lone working at remote locations.
New regulations have come into force to make it easier for Scots to make changes to their homes.
The move means many home improvements will be able to go ahead without planning permission.
Projects including extensions, sheds and garages will not need official approval under the new rules, which were laid in parliament in October.
via www.bbc.co.uk
The minerals industry has long placed great store in the effective restoration of its sites, as the 40 year history of the Mineral Products Association’s Restoration Awards Scheme will testify. In October the Mineral Products Association and Natural England launched their inaugural Biodiversity Awards at the Royal Society in London.
CEMEX UK, in partnership with the RSPB, was the first operator to win this new award, for its positive, large-scale heathland restoration work at Rugeley Quarry in Staffordshire. Placing the needs of biodiversity firmly at the centre of its plans to create rare, lowland heathland habitat at this site, the company hopes to support priority BAP species including nightjar, tree pipit, woodlark, great crested newt and adder.
Good to see a story highlighting the positive work large commercial operations can achieve to promote biodiversity.
