In March, after four years’ delay, Tendring District Council issued enforcement proceedings against Greater Anglia for building a vast new car park and lighting at Manningtree station – including a 200 yard long, milled steel “Berlin Wall”, without planning permission. Tendring told Greater Anglia to take the entire development down, citing an independent environmental screening assessment which concluded that its impact on the Dedham Vale National Landscape and its special qualities was “at the highest end of the degree of significance.”
So far so good in getting this long-standing eyesore sorted out, but Greater Anglia appealed. And, to our astonishment, a day before the election period, a planning inspector, who had never visited the site, said that the development “would not be likely to have a significant effect on the environment” and effectively gave it planning permission. Tendring dropped its enforcement proceedings.
The DVS consulted its lawyers who pointed out that the inspector had failed to consider significant details, such as the amount of light pollution emitted by the development which would affect the dark sky status of the National Landscape. She had also ignored – and admitted she had ignored - a new legal duty incumbent on her and other public bodies such as Tendring and Greater Anglia which says they “must seek to further the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the area of outstanding natural beauty.”
We don’t think this development can in any way be argued to have done so. This mess can now only be resolved in court. Please support our challenge, whatever you can afford, as a judicial review is a big undertaking for a little charity like ours, but we are fighting this on behalf of National Landscapes all over the country:
