Quibell’s Lane

Dalcour Maclaren was commissioned by Severn Trent Water Limited to seek full planning permission for the retention and spreading of tunnel arisings on land at Quibell’s Lane, Newark, related to recent sewer upgrade works in the town.

Initial pre-application advice from Nottingham County Council indicated that they would not support an application, predominantly due to their perception that it did not accord with current policies within the Waste Core Strategy.

Dalcour Maclaren provided a robust evidence-based planning application including a supporting statement, Flood Risk Assessment and additional information on the suitability of the material for agricultural enhancement and benefit. Our proficient technical report writing skills, quality of presentation and attention to detail led to the planning officer providing the following response in an e-mail: “Thank you for a very detailed and informative planning statement”.

The supporting statement provided detailed evidence of adherence to the appropriate policies that were applicable to this site, demonstrating a detailed understanding of planning policy and planning system. Our in-house Environment and Planning teams detailed technical knowledge of soils, ground materials, hydrogeology, flood risk and experience in a wide range of quarrying and land development sites (with regard to contaminated land and understanding of the CL:AIRE (Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments) Definition of Waste Industry Code of Practice, led to the proposal moving away from waste deposit and towards waste recovery and overall spreading of material for agricultural enhancement.

Additional queries were responded to in an effective and efficient manner, ensuring minimal delay to validation and determination programme. The comprehensiveness and quality of the information and technical detail submitted, which included resolving complex queries on soils, FRA, ecology and agricultural benefit were acknowledged and appreciated by the planning officer and resulted in no objections to the proposals. Dalcour Maclaren’s ability to portray a complex level of detail and depth of understanding of the technical disciplines in such a positive light was key in ensuring success, resulting in a speedier decision determined by officer delegated powers due to the lack of objections from consultees.

The reports produced for the Newark scheme demonstrate Dalcour Maclaren’s technical expertise, knowledge, skills and overall quality through various stages of the planning process which resulted in a positive outcome and successful conclusion to a scheme that was considered to present a difficult complex challenge both in terms of demonstrating planning need and technical detail. The successful application and resultant positive planning decision saved the client considerable cost and time, by not only gaining planning consent, but by ensuring the suitable reuse of surplus material, saving haulage costs and providing an environmental benefit by reducing the need for a substantial number of HGV movements.

The wider Newark Waste and Water Improvement project was selected as a finalist for the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) People’s Choice Awards.

Some key facts of the wider scheme include:

25km of pipework was installed in one town to improve both foul and clean water networks, enough to stretch from Newark to Lincoln.
3km of the tunnel dug beneath Newark’s busy and historic streets, is large enough to drive a transit van under the town.
400 property owners no longer have to worry about regular sewer flooding, protected by a state-of-the-art pump station that could empty 65 baths every second that it operates.