Council agrees to quash permission for quarry project: report

Charity the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) has said that a pre-action protocol letter to Northumberland County Council has led the authority to admit to a legal error and agree to enter into a consent order to quash its decision to permit a quarry project.

ELF said an application had been made for a 28 hectare aggregate quarry from which it was proposed to extract 2.8m tonnes of the mineral dolerite on a site near Kirkwhelpington of high ecological importance.

It said the site was home to purple moor grass, rush pasture and lowland acid grassland, habitats designated as of principal importance under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006.

Also present are the fungi waxcaps, white-clawed crayfish, both of which ELF said were populations of international importance.

Conservation charities Plantlife and Buglife submitted objections to the development and the former cited research estimating that acid grassland can hold 90 tonnes of soil carbon per hectare, which could be released into the atmosphere during soil disturbance, and that these carbon emissions had not been subject to an environmental impact assessment.

Northumberland though granted permission for the development in early February.

ELF said it worked with Jessica Allen of No.5 Chambers, to send the letter, which argued that the failure to assess the climate effects of the development was an error in law.

"This is a point that has been made particularly salient following the landmark case of Finch last year," the charity added.

It said: “The council conceded that they had erred in law on this basis, and agreed to enter into a consent order to quash the decision.”

Northumberland has been contacted for comment.

Mark Smulian