A LANDOWNER whose plan to store timber at a former quarry has been refused has said there is “no threat” to a nearby nature reserve.
Jack Hanbury Tenison also said the rejected plan would have helped reduce road closures in place for crews to chop down diseased trees at the roadside.
A council planning report that rejected the application claimed “the applicant” had suggested a licence that allows the council to use part of the site as a nature reserve would be withdrawn if the application was refused. That, the report said, would “close the reserve down with immediate effect”.
But Mr Hanbury Tenison, whose family developed Pontypool Park before gifting it to the public, said there is “no threat” from him to the nature reserve that forms the wider part of the former Cwmynscoy Quarry to the south of Pontypool.
Torfaen council planners rejected the application as, they said, delivering and unloading felled trees on existing area of hardstanding would “undermine the peace and tranquillity” of the reserve. The location in the open countryside was also found to be inappropriate and storing timber visually “unacceptable”.
Mr Hanbury Tenison said: “There is no threat to the nature reserve from me and I do see the comment as a little bit perverse.”
Hanson’s Quarry
The quarry area is in three parts with an area of land that has been licensed to the council for the nature reserve alongside another part the estate gifted the council which also forms a nature reserve. The third part is the former Hanson’s quarry where it was planned to store timber on hardstanding and which, the landowner, said has to be used for “agriculture or forestry”.
Mr Hanbury Tenison said the licence granted to the council has already expired and he is in talks with the council over its future but said while he wants the nature reserve to continue he was disappointed it was cited by the council as a reason to reject his planning application.
He said: “The council has created the problem saying the nature reserve is the reason for the refusal. If it’s not a nature reserve then they don’t have a reason to refuse, it seems a slightly perverse logic, why do we have to have an argument?”
The landowner said it is a “fact, not a threat” the current licence has come to an end but talks are continuing and said there is no intention to force the reserve’s closure: “We are all for the nature reserve and I can’t quite understand why the council has created this problem.”
Diseased trees
Mr Hanbury Tenison said he had been approached by a tree surgeon contracted to cut down diseased trees to use the quarry as a local storage area rather than them having to transport felled trees further away: “I thought it was a good idea and would help with commuters getting to work as it would help reduce the road closures.”
He said he doesn’t know at present whether he will appeal the refusal and would likely need to consider further advice.
Torfaen Friends of the Earth, the Friends of Cwmynyscoy Nature Reserve and the Gwent Wildlife Trust all objected to the storage plans as the quarry form part of a Site of Importance to Nature Conservation or SINC and is also part of the Cwmynyscoy Quarries West Regionally Important Geodiversity Sites.
Torfae council’s ecologist and environmental regulator Natural Resources Wales said they believed the application could be approved with conditions, and there was no objection from the highways department.
Torfaen council has been approached for comment.