Brickkiln Waste Ltd Heather Road Appeal/ Enforcement Case

Brickkiln Waste Ltd has been operating a skip transfer centre at its site on Heather Road since the early 1990’s. As a result of changes in waste management practices, waste could no longer be simply transferred, rather it had to be separated and recycled were possible. This meant that Brickkiln required more space at their Heather Road site in order to accommodate the plant necessary to separate waste and as such they expanded their operations into adjacent former coal yard and builders yard. Planning Service suggested that this was an unauthorised expansion/ intensification of the site, which led to the submission of planning application in November 2007 for retention of the buildings and the use. This application was refused in July 2010 primarily on roads grounds but also visual on the basis of alleged intensification of the site. This was subsequently appealed and shortly after the initial part of the appeal hearing in November 2011, Planning Service served an enforcement notice. The hearing had been adjourned in 2011 to deal with outstanding roads issues and will reopen in early 2013 at which the enforcement issues will also be heard.

Issues Encountered

• Complex planning history on site and surrounding area
• Site accessed by narrow road network
• Site is in a rural location
• Operation mostly reuses existing buildings
• Tonnage of operation did not increase when site expanded
• Brickkiln has an authorised skip transfer use on a smaller part of the site

Our Involvement

We were retained in July 2010 to advise on the best way forward for the site following the refusal of the planning application for retention of use and buildings. We submitted the appeal in later 2010 and have represented the client at the 2011 hearing. Through a series of LDC’s and work through the appeal process, we reduced the number of refusal reasons from 9 to 3 by early 2013.

In August 2013, the Commission allowed the appeal, and granted full planning permission for the retention of the waste recycling facility.