Residents may be interested to know that the 4R Planning Application was rejected by East Riding Council’s planning committee earlier today.
Cllr Caroline Fox did a great job speaking on behalf of residents in opposition to the application. Local Councillors Liz Sargeantson and Anne Handley who sit on the Committee voted against the application being approved. Cllr John Briggs from North Lincs Council also attended the meeting as many residents over the border on the north of the Isle are concerned too.
The applicants have a right of appeal and they can also re-submit so the battle may not be over yet. I will keep residents updated. Well done to the local campaigners who have fought hard to oppose this.
Earlier in the week I formally wrote to the Secretary of State for Local Government to ask him to call this application in for decision by him. This is a rarely used power that allows the Secretary of State to take a decision off a local Council and make it himself if he feels it is nationally significant enough.
Ahead of the planning meeting, the Council were informed that the Secretary of State had indicated he would be looking at 'calling-in' the decision if the Council decided to approve the application.
I am thankful he did this as I had argued in my submission to him on Tuesday that the proximity of the site close to such an environmentally sensitive area as the Humberhead Peatlands meant it was nationally significant.
I am pleased that he made this indication. The power of Secretary of State call-in is for nationally significant cases so we may have fallen down but at least the submission appears to have garnered attention from the Secretary of State. In the end we didn't need it but I wanted us to be covered just in case!
Andrew