The planning committee meeting to decide upon the EA application occurred last night (12th September 2019) and is available to watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vh5Y8-u3Ws&feature=youtu.be (after 10 minutes). It ended up taking until almost 19:30 to get a decision as around half the committee (Independent, Labour & Green) wanted refusal or deferment, whilst the Conservative and LibDem councillors were for the development without any further conditions or consideration. We must thank the Labour, Green and Independent councillors for their regard for the environment and the thirty years of hard work by the Friends. The application was approved by a small majority with an additional condition added. We now await whether the Secretary of State will as for a public inquiry.
The EA had wheeled in a consulting engineer from Jacobs to read out a statement from the Reservoir Supervising Engineer to the effect that if it wasn’t approved and the scheme didn’t go forward the bank might fail and repairs would have to be carried out under Section 10 which wouldn’t improve the defences to a 1 in 100 standard as the current application was doing. The legal and planning advice also suggested that members couldn’t ask for all the missing strategies to be brought following a deferment as that would be asking too much of the EA.
The Friends of Rawcliffe Meadows 