Spooner Row Message Board

http://eplanning.norfolk.gov.uk/PlanAppDisp.aspx?AppNo=C/3/2015/3016

Seems a little bit hidden.

I have noted this and let our area County Councillor know and have also let the County Councillor in whose area Besthorpe is located know of my feelings and objection. This site not being in South Norfolk limits what we can say or do, but as Mineral recycling comes under County we can let our Councillor know, Colin Foulger and the Councillor in whose area this illegal activity is already taking place, alexander.byrne@norfolk.gov.uk,  so hopefully it will be chucked out. I attach a slightly amended e mail of complaint. 

http://eplanning.norfolk.gov.uk/PlanAppDisp.aspx?AppNo=C/3/2015/3016

Dear Sirs

This application , which I believe has been put in place is to address the illegal activity currently taking place at Herons Farm Besthorpe , necessitates a large number of HGV movements , all through the Village of Spooner row past the primary school in Station road and Bunwell road respectively.

 Leaving aside the original idiocy of allowing and designating this route as an HGV one , further HGV movement along this road , which has already been noted by the Speedwatch Team, is really nonsensical and I would register , as a member of the Team and a local ward Councillor , my strongest objection to the application.

 I would stress that there have no incidents of speeding that I or the teams have recorded , but the increase in the number of Newall Lorries using this route has been noted. The road is narrow in places and was badly flooded recently and needs a much higher level of maintenance to keep it sound, which in these times is simply not going to happen. This to say nothing of the grief that any HGV causes at school pick up times.

Julian Halls

Have all residents along the proposed route (Station Rd and Bunwell Rd) been made aware of this planning application? Has the school been made aware?

Residents using public transport have to walk to the nearest bus stop at London Rd, in Suton using Station Road, which does not have a footpath for half its length. Will Norfolk Council Council be providing a path if they allow this planning application through, as it will produce a load more lorries travelling through a residential area?

I spoke to the local County Councillor in whose area it is located . He was unaware of this but is now.

I see a couple of people have objected, surprised not to see more considering the impact.

Seems a very fair offer by Newalls - nice to see another non-anonymous post on here, too!

Peter Clarke ? The person whose land Newalls rent from ? and your son-in-law I guess it would seem fair.

The very fact that it is a retrospective application shows the mentality of the applicant, i.e. I will do what ever I want, and if someone complains I will carry on but seek forgiveness. If I am refused, I will carry on and seek forgiveness again whilst complaining it impacts my business. The fact that these people have effectively invested millions in plant at a site where this work is technically illegal shows that they have no intention in stopping what they are doing nor do they expect anyone to try to stop them.

It is a joke that they think it is acceptable to have all these noisy dirty trucks thundering past a village school and peoples houses, it's bad enough with that truck park and all the 40 foot artic's squeezing past the parked cars opposite the pub, we dont need an additonal truck every 5 or 6 minutes.

I say we accept their offer of a meeting.

In the village hall, with the residents and  Councillors present, let them justify their actions face to face, I for one am going to start driving VERY slowly whenever a Newall truck is unlucky to get behind me. 

Cynical, they've been operating a year already, this application was most likely submitted because they were reported.

I think it's fair to say if the original poster had not enlightend anyone on here noone would of known about it and a meeting from Newall would of never been offered. Seems their village consideration is like their planning, retrospective.

Unfortunately the Village Hall is fully booked into February for a meeting, however, we would still like to offer to hold a meeting as proposed. We would welcome anyone who wishes to attend an informal meeting at our premises on Monday the 25th of January between 6pm and 8pm.

As previously mentioned if you have any queries or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us directly.

Kind regards,

Newall Civil Engineering Ltd

The Barn

Heron Farm

Bunwell Road

Besthorpe

Attleborough

Thank you to Newalls for the offer of a meeting but may I articulate the concerns.

• a meeting to be held to discuss this application might air some views but it does not change the fact that more HGV lorries will be using the road if permission is granted
• a meeting is not consultation and anyone deciding not to attend do not want to grant consent by not attending 
• the application is retrospective and wouldn't it have been so much better if the application could have been put together before this activity has started and it  means that the applicant is , one would think, immediately on the back foot. However such is the love of Industry .....
• The condition and width of the road , given the state of Local Government finance is simply a recipe for further road surface degradation. ( Please see the state of the repair to the road surface at the Spooner row chicane)
• The HGV route should never have been allowed past and through Spooner row in the first instance, but of course there are less people affected in Spooner row than the alternative through Attleborough and Old Buckenham ( NIMBY ism rules okay) so we were always going to lose out. That is cynical vote winning politics
• The County Councillor seems to think we should let the application run and did NOT say he was against this. Not the Cromwells ward Councillor who so far has not expressed a view
• the Lorry drivers in my experience do adhere to the limit so a thank you there, but slow vehicles and impatient drivers are not a good combination near a school or what is already a bad junction in the village.
• I already have a meeting booked for monday night at 1930 but if we have one early , I will feedback to the County Councillor the views expressed and if I cannot attend I will feedback the views if anyone else does attend who wants to let me know. However one has to say the general view is already against for obvious reasons 

I can't see this happening, at the moment only the people that view this site know about it, if they door to door or advertise it is will only make things worse for them. You have to remember this isn't a consulatation meeting, nothing will change from it.

Plus routing this through Atlleborough or any other village is not better for anyone else, their business is in a poor location end of.

Anonymous

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 I live in the village and drive a lorry for a living, the way the newalls drivers come through the village breaking and accelerating excessively at junctions is so unnecessary they have no respect for the people that live here, I have complained on numerous occasions and nothing has been done, I wish I had known about the meeting it seems that it was kept very quiet. Is there another meeting planned where the people of Spooner row can attend? I will make sure that there would be more people aware of this meeting to voice their opinion.

Guys, you still have a chance to stop this. They haven't got planning yet and their tippers are linked to that planning, if they don't get planning the tippers will not be able to come to the site loaded therefore the traffic will drop significantly.

See the link above and make your objections known.

Then he is an idiot. See my logged formal complaint on the 9th JAN above

Anonymous wrote:

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I spoke to a Jon Hanner today, who is the case officer for highways on this, he isnt aware of residents objections in Spooner Row of the HGV route or damage caused to the roads contact number 01603 223273 if anyone wants to make any comments. 

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 The person to contact is Tom O'Connor at NCC, 01603 223077

Is the road wide enough? what about the HGV tyre marks on the footpath between the level crossing and the church? the road isn't wide enough when two large HGV's meet

At 10:00 hours on April 1st the Planning Meeting at Norfolk Council HQ  met to listen to the 'pros' and 'cons' then take a democratic vote on the 'retrospective planning permission' for the Newalls' Industrial Process Plant .

A strong 'show of hands' at the planning committee AGAINST the application was seen. (The applicant's lawyer attended the meeting . I did too).

Despite that clear decision by the Council, later this afternoon from 15:00 hours I was aware of the characteristic noise of the Newalls crusher plant in operation. (It was heard by my neighbour and me. Video of the activemovement of the material handling equipment at the aggregate 'waste pile' was taken).  

Despite no permission for that noisy industrial process these past years, and despite Norfolk Council planning committee's decision NOT to approve the 'restrospective permision' today; the Plant is still operated. What does this say about 'enforcement' ?

What does it take to get the wealthy and powerful individual that owns 'Newalls' to respect the planning process, and also to show a bit of respect to the residents nearby?

It is  unrealistic to think that Newall's legal rep. would not have forwarded the decision of Norfolk Council this morning. thus Newall's decision to operate the plant that same afternoon; comes over as a wilful snub to the democratic process in Norfolk.

well done County

How refreshing a sensible decision, of course being ignored by industry and no doubt appeal on the way.

I was nearly in an accident with one of these today !! Can anyone explain why they are still coming through the village ?

There is a form on SNDC website to report a breach of planning

 http://forms.south-norfolk.gov.uk/pub/WebEnquiry.ofml?prepopulate=true&feedback_type=enquiry&referring_team=Planning%20Administration&email_to=planning@s-norfolk.gov.uk&referring_url=http://www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/planning/283.asp

 Can I suggest that we frequently complain that they are operating illegally? 

An alternative option is to take a photo of their lorry driving past and e-mail it to Newall's using the e-mail address they have supplied (  info@newallcivilengineering.co.uk ) send them a few dozen copies (High resolution if possible). Whilst it wont break their e-mail server, it will be a nice reminder that they are not welcome, and it might fill up their mailbox

I saw one going down Station Rd yesterday and was wondering the same.

I have spoken to the planning enforcement department at Norfolk CC. They say that they have served an enforcement notice on the site. The planning refusal has been appealed and will now go to a independent planning inspector, this process should take 'a few weeks'. If the planning inspector upholds the refuse decision then Newall will have a period of time to clear the site etc. or they can appeal to the High Court

He did say that the county council are interested in the recycling activities at the site, NOT the truck movement and storage which is separately controlled by Breckland council. Even if the planning inspector upholds the refusal, it does not mean the trucks would stop

People who are concerned by the activities are allowed to send their concerns to the planning inspector.

I have logged my concerns.

Although Norfolk CC is only enforcing the land, I noticed today that there is an investigation regarding their original planning; which if you take a look at is tiny compared to what they are running today, change of use of a building into an office, parking for a couple of transit vans and a flatbed, I'd say they have greatly exceeded that. As a side note if the refusal is upheld then the lorries can't bring any materials to the site, I'd say that would pretty much defeat the point of having them.

Make a complaint regarding the lorries & the site to Breckland Planning Enforcement, case number below 01362 656873.

Actually in fairness to the man who called me, he was very helpful, and has sent me copies of the enforcement notices and links to where I should log my objection. Same for the man from Norfolk cc. I am travelling at the moment, and the docs are on my computer at home so I can't share them, but I will when I am back in the uk on Thursday.

they said because it was initially refused at planning ctte that would be their recommendation going forward, which I thought was positive.

Summer 2018 -  All-day noise until late evenings at weekends have been disrupted  by the nuisance noise of aggregate  loading and its heavy-duty mechanical plant in action at NEWALLS. no consideration for residents. 

The recent 2018 Bank Holiday weekends have provided no respite to local residents. Instead of  enjoying a summer evening, have been treated instead to the intense impact of vibration and sound of heavy duty mechanical plant in action at NEWALLS Bunwell Road site.

In 2018, crusher waste is now being dumped  at another nearby site in Silfield where a recently acquired  'Grade 3' four acre grassland  paddock  is being converted into a 'satellite dump site' with mountains of waste deposited on  grass land. Another opportunity to convert rural norfolk into  an ad-hoc industrial estate . A long  history of  not bothering with the Planning Consent provess for  commercial and  and industrial activities will see the Long Road, Silfield, NR18 9NT converted into the latest site of  environmental destruction similar to the photograph of the Bunwell Road 'blot' above................

It is happening now.