CATI activities

Activities ongoing 

1.  Complaint to Ombudsman re. Cardiff’s falsification of Planning Cttee decision.

An outline complaint made to the Council is awaiting a reply.

2. High Court case.  Still no announcement of the result.  But another High Court decision quashing retrospective approval of EIA-=development gives us hope the same would apply to Viridor. (see below) 

3. State Aid – application to Europe together with FOE Cymru and SNIC (Newport) to be re-submitted with a strong argument on our ‘interest’ in the case.  Perhaps a Petition on the Assembly website would give it prominance and help win politicians’ support.

4. Objection to Cardiff Council’s Auditor – 

• the 25-year contract was signed without due diligence, relying on PG’s unqualified personnel and Russell Goodway.
• the cost is far above best-value levels secured by other Councils £100 per tonne compared with £60-80 per tonne for similar English incinerators (25-yr)
• Cardiff Officers and Cabinet accepted PG’s excessive waste projections that ignore Cardiff’s target for waste prevention etc. 
• Cardiff Officers and Cabinet failed to get PG to consider better (cheaper; more flexible)  technologies now available, being adopted elsewhere. 

5. Discharge of Cdn 4 on remediation  13/02600/DCO - Public Consultation

New Notice posted 12 Feb. (date 20 Feb) announcing new late data, extending the consultation time for 21 days from the published date.  The officers have failed to explain data that’s still lacking and  failure to meet promises of Remediation/verification reports .

6. Lorries to the Viridor Site – were they responsible for the death of the cyclist on Toxic Ave?

Another High Court decision quashing retrospective approval of EIA-=development gives us hope the same would apply to Viridor.
COURT QUASHES RETROSPECTIVE PLANNING PERMISSION FOR EIA DEVELOPMENT 22 JAN 2014 LANDMARK CHAMBERS BLOG

The High Court (HHJ Mackie QC) today quashed a planning permission for EIA development granted by Maidstone Borough Council which, inter alia,  authorised the retention of 100,000’s of tonnes of construction waste that had been imported onto land without planning permission in order to form raised fishing lakes: R (Paddden) v Maidstone Borough Council. The importation was having adverse effects on the home of the Claimant including causing groundwater flooding.

The learned Judge found, applying Case C-215/06 Commission v Ireland [2008] ECR I-4911 and R (Ardagh Glass Ltd ) v Chester City Council & Others [2011] P.T.S.R. 1498, that the Council had failed to consider the question of whether there were exceptional circumstances to justify the grant of permission. He also found that in granting permission the Council had unlawfully failed to make reasonable enquiries to try to obtain the factual information necessary for its decision on the application and that officers had failed to report to Members concerns about a proposed condition to deal with ground water flooding which had been raised by the Environment Agency.

James Maurici QC appeared for the successful Claimant instructed by Dechert LLP.