Landesign was instructed in mid November 2015 to prepare and submit, by early December 2015, an Environment Act ‘ROMP’ scheme for a sand quarry in Central Bedfordshire. The application was subsequently prepared, submitted and determined by 23 February 2016.
The ROMP site comprises different land uses including open quarry workings; restored land and an area of unworked woodland containing a mature chestnut plantation. The ROMP submission therefore had to manage a number of different phases of the quarry development, with both traffic flow and maintaining highway cleanliness being key concerns.
The ROMP submission was kept as simple as possible with pre-submission consultation with the council proving to be key in ensuring that the final application could be dealt with quickly whilst simultaneously addressing the aims and needs of both the operator and the planning authority. As a result of this approach there were few changes to the proposed conditions.
Despite the process taking place across the Christmas break period (when the planning system typically slows down due to the festive holidays), the whole process from the initial instruction of Landesign; the preparation of the ‘ROMP’ submission; and the issuing of the new permission document was achieved in less than four months.
