SAVE RADLEY
LAKES - THE CURRENT SITUATION
What happened recently?
The Current Situation:
What have NPower done?
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At a meeting on the 1st November, 2007 there was overwhelming support to continue the campaign and fight the Inspector's report. Read the full judgement. An expert Barrister has been consulted and there are apparently some legal flaws which can be challenged in the report. This second legal opinion was obtained on the 23rd November 2007 and as a result Oxfordshire County Council withheld the Rubber Stamp that would have refused the Town Green Application. See Media Page for Press Release Oxfordshire County Council have received Mr Chapman's response to our Legal Challenge and debated this (or rubber stamped it, more like) at the Planning and Regulation Committee Meeting on the 14th January 2008. Unfortunately the Council has decided there is no case for the area to be made a Town Green. Oxford County Council Planning Committee endorsed this recommendation not to grant Town Green Status. Legal Advice received indicated that a successful challenge could be made and weare continuing our fund raising to cover legal fees incurred in the challenges made so far and the Judicial Review Process. A Cross-Party Public Meeting was held on the 9th February, 2008, convened by Evan Harris, who shared the platform with all prospective local parliamentary candidates. The unanimous verdict of the meeting was that a Judicial Review should be pursued and donations and pledges of over £4500 were received at that meeting with more money and pledges coming in during the following days. NPower have now made an about-turn, and from needing the lake "24/7" (to use their awful phrase) they have decided they don't need it after all - but only for the forseeable future. The cynics amongst us will say that their statement is just a ploy to head off the Judicial Review, which they know is likely to succeed. Radley Parish Council have decided at a meeting on the 28th February 2008 to undertake the legal process for a Judicial Review of the decision by Oxfordshire County Council. Approaches by the Parish Council to NPower to get them to give a better guarantee for the security of Thrupp Lake for future generations met with little change in their arguments. It is still their backstop for ash disposal - they said - as it has always been! The difference is that the lake would have been filled by now had the legal action not prevented the disposal of their ash. NPower were obliged to find other means and did so, successfully, which begs the question why they didn't do it sooner. In the meantime, the legal process continues. |
NPower were granted permission in January 2006 by Oxfordshire County Council, who could have revisited the application but chose not to do so.
In February 2007, NPower decided to trash the lake margins and islands by cutting down the mature trees which made the lake so beautiful. This action was taken despite being asked not to start work until after the Town Green application (OCC validated our application in Dec 06), was determined. They obtained a High Court Injunction Click here for Channel 4 News Report just before they started work to stop people photographing their works -More details on the Radley Village Website
Looking Down the BOAT to the Blocks and the Entry on the right which NPower say was always Fenced!
Looking across to the BOAT - beautiful mature Horse Chestnut Trees have
been removed from here. This ought to be a criminal offence.
This wanton vandalism is nothing short of spiteful. Following this support for this campaign has received an enormous upsurge in recent days. It transpires they did not have permission to cut down the Trees, nor use Sandles as a Depot Yard, or put their equipment on the Byway.
Before taken from the same place - roughly.
After NPower's vicious assault
For further information visit:
www.radleyvillage.org.uk/news/news0032.htm and www.radleyvillage.org.uk/news/news0037.htm
Following aPublic Meeting there have been two Protest Marches, the first organised by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England on the 17th February when 250 people turned out, and a March from Abingdon to Radley Lakes and on to Radley Village on the 10th March resulted in over 500 people turning out.
Started on the 2nd April 2007 at 11.00 am and was adjourned on Thursday 5th April. Resumed on the 20th June and closed on the 22nd June 2007. The exchanges were lengthy
For more information visit the Radley Village Website which has the full details of the exchanges at the Inquiry for the first part.
The Inspector's Report, version 3 it was noted, eventually came out in October, when it had been promised for the end of August/beginning of September.
An eminent Barrister, Mr George Laurence, has been engaged by Save Radley Lakes to review the report and his initial findings were that there were some legal questions that needed to be put to the Inspector as the findings, as they stood, could be open to a legal Challenge.
Oxfordshire County Council did not seek a second opinion on our Barrister's findings and decided to go ahead with the recommendation of Mr. Chapman not to make the area a Town Green. This action has left the County Council open to have its decision challenged in the High Court.
This is the recently dug gravel pit adjacent to the Power station, owned by Waste Recycling Group. Sadly Oxfordshire County Council granted planning permission to WRG to bring in waste from outside the County, putting thousands more lorries on to the roads round Didcot. This is the same committee that said NPower's extra lorries were unacceptable to take the ash away from the Power Station!
After pressure from Save Radley Lakes, Waste Recycling Group has been taking more of Didcot's ash and they promised to look into ways of working with Didcot Power Station to take more of their ash for recycling.