DEVELOPMENT AT STATION ROAD, RENISHAW
The Site
The site is located to the south of Station Road and is bounded to the east by the Trans Pennine Trail and the Chesterfield Canal. A new access has been constructed off Station Road near the Sitwell Arms Hotel. Further to the south, the site lies between the Trail and the rivers Rother and Doe Lea. The nearest houses are on Main Road to the north east and Hague Lane to the east. To open a plan of the site please click here.
North East Derbyshire District Council has granted planning permission for a golf course which will entail the construction of a club house with office, restaurant and shop, and a children’s playhouse with associated car parking and facilities in the area immediately south of Station Road. The area to the south will contain the golf course and takes in the land between the Trail and the river as far south as just beyond the confluence with the River Doe Lea. To see the golf course landscape masterplan, please click here.
The site is divided into three separate areas. Phase One, at the northern end, has planning permission for the recovery of ash and its replacement with construction and demolition materials. This part of the operation has been completed, the ash has been removed and original ground levels have been rebuilt using imported construction wastes. The Phase One area will ultimately house the golf course buildings, car parks, ponds and general landscaping.
Phase Two lies to the south of Phase One and has yet to have its ash deposit removed and ground levels reconstructed. Together with a third phase further to the south, this area will form the open golf course.
The Development
Ash (Renishaw) now needs to submit two planning applications to Derbyshire County Council. The application for Phase Two will seek to remove the ash deposit from the surface in the same way that it has been removed from the Phase One area, and to replace it with imported remediated wastes and soils. Once this work has been completed, the open golf course can be constructed on the new surface. To see the Phase 2 part of the site, please click here.
The second application will seek to create a soil remediation facility on the Phase One area to treat contaminated soils brought onto the site. The soils will have been contaminated in accidental spillages of fuel oils and other forms of hydrocarbon contamination. The remediation process involves the controlled treatment and stabilisation of the soils to reduce contamination to harmless levels in a series of biopiles. The soils will remain in the biopiles for around three months. Once the process has been completed, the remediated soils will be used to replace the ash removed from the Phase Two area as well as the golf course mounding and soils.
The remediation process is contained to minimise odours and control drainage, so that environmental impacts are reduced to acceptable levels.
Following the completion of the Phase One and Two operations, the golf course development will be completed.
During the period when ash is being taken off site and waste brought in, an average of 17 lorries will visit the site each working day. This will fall to an average of 9 once ash recovery has ceased. The ash recovery is programmed to last for five months whilst the waste operation traffic movements will take place over nineteen months. The overlap between the two will last for around two months.
Operational hours will be 7:30am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays. In practice, few lorries are likely to leave the site after 4:30pm as the receiving sites would be closed by the time the lorries arrived. There will be no working on Saturday afternoons, Sundays or public holidays except in emergency or for plant maintenance.
All lorries will travel to the M1 motorway along Main Road and Sheffield Road (A6135) except those accessing local sites and will return using the same route. No lorries from the Site will use Hague Lane.
The Soil Remediation Process
Micro-organisms or microbes are hugely abundant. They have the ability to survive and even thrive in extreme environments where other organisms would perish. This unique trait makes these organisms a valuable tool in the remediation process. Micro-organisms require energy in order to develop and increase their population sizes. Contamination can be a rich source of energy and this is the basis of the bioremediation methodology. Bioremediation utilises contaminants as a microbial energy source which inadvertently bio-transforms these contaminants into less harmful products. However, the micro-organisms require stimulation to increase the rate of breakdown
The materials to be bio-remediated need to be conditioned, the process being based upon the physical, chemical and biological profile of the material. The conditioning phase will entail the addition of soil amendments including agricultural fertilisers, compost and microbes and in some cases improved geotechnically to allow materials to be used within the development works.
Subsequent to the conditioning process, the material is formed into biopiles within a bunded area with associated drainage, sump and aeration systems. The biopiles are covered by an impermeable membrane and various parameters are measured throughout the treatment process. Based upon these monitoring parameters, the biopile will be managed to optimise the treatment or breakdown rate. Dwell time in the biopile will vary up to three months in length.
Before any wastes would be accepted onto the site, a report would be required identifying the contaminants for each type of material. Most of these materials will have some form of hydrocarbon contamination suitable for the form of treatment proposed. The contamination is likely, but not limited to include the following:
Diesel range organics
Petroleum range organics
Mineral oils
Part of the assessment of whether a waste material is to be accepted is the potential for odour release resulting from the bio-remediation process. This assessment will be particular to each waste consignment.
Because the biopiles are covered and sealed from the ground, odours are minimised and contamination of the ground and surface water is eliminated. Once the remediation process is complete, the resultant material is effectively odourless when placed on the land.
The remediation process and the use of the remediated materials on the land are controlled by the Environment Agency by means of Environmental Permits.
To see a plan of the layout please click here.
Environmental Impact Assessment
Planning regulations require that planning applications for larger developments are accompanied by an environmental impact assessment. An Environmental Impact Assessment is being prepared for submission with the planning applications in late January.
Environmental Impact Assessments have to look at each environmental impact that could be caused by a development and assess them separately. The conclusions of each assessment have to be used to minimise the predicted impacts. The overall assessment is then prepared as a single document and the planning application has to show that the assessment recommendations have been built into how the development is to be carried out.
The Environmental Impact Assessment will investigate the following:
Landscape and Visual Impact
Ecological Impact
Traffic Impact
Noise Impact
Odour Impact
Air Quality (Dust) Impact
Impact on Archaeology
Impact on Surface and Ground Water
Flood Risk
Ground Stability
Impact on the Socio-Economic Fabric of the Community
Public Consultation
The pre-application public consultation arranged by Ash (Renishaw) Ltd has ended following the public exhibition at the Sitwell Arms on 19 January 2011. Any comments by interested parties now need to be sent to Derbyshire County Council Environmental Services Department at Shand House, Dale Road South, Matlock DE4 3RY.
Planning Application resubmitted with Environmental Statement
The planning applications and Environmental Statement were submitted to Derbyshire County Council on 1 February 2012. The County Council will now process the application and ask for comments from various statutory consultees. The applications will be advertised with site notices and in local newspapers.
The application documents have now been placed on the County Council’s website and can be read and/or downloaded using the following links:
The Environmental Assessment Non-Technical Summary can be downloaded here
Link to planning application documents for the Phase 2 application on Derbyshire County Council’s website
Link to planning application documents for the Soil Remediation application on Derbyshire County Council’s website
Environmental Permits
The Paragraph 19 Exemption from Environmental Permitting, which covers the deposit of inert waste to form the golf course, has been renewed. The Paragraph 13 Exemption which covers the crushing and screening of inert waste remains valid for the time being.
An application for a Standard Rules Environmental Permit (SR2010No8) was submitted to the Environment Agency in September 2010. If granted, this permit will allow remediated soils and construction waste to be used to form the golf course and it will replace the Paragraph 19 exemption. The remediated soils used will be those produced on site by the soil remediation process which is the subject of one of the two current planning applications.
The Environment Agency has suspended consideration of the Standard Rules Permit application until such time as Derbyshire County Council makes its decision on the two planning applications. Until the Permit is issued, operations can continue under the Paragraph 19 and 13 Exemptions.
The main document in the Permit application is the Waste Recovery Plan which can be downloaded here.
A Standard Rules permit can be viewed here.
