Relative monetary value placed on Oaken Wood by the Inspector
Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,
File Ref: APP/W2275/V/11/2158341
Hermitage Quarry, Hermitage Lane, Aylesford, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8AE
The planning application was called in for decision by the Secretary of State by a direction, made under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, on 27 July 2011, and reported on shortly after.
1) Can you please supply me with the calculations, if any, made by the Inspector in this case, or the Secretary of State, ascribing a relative/monetary value to Oaken Wood in terms of:
a) Biodiversity value
b) Ecological value
c) Environmental services value
d) Historic value
e) Health and well-being / social value
f) Intrinsic value
2) Can you please provide me with any cost-benefit analysis that was carried out with regards to Oaken Wood.
3) Can you please provide me with any comparative calculations made that show that the loss of the woodland was outweighed by the perceived benefits.
Since this information can reasonably be expected to have been part of both the Inspector's and the Secretary of State's deliberations, it should incur no additional cost or man hours to extract this information.
If this information does not exist, can you please confirm the same.
Yours faithfully,
Jacquie Cox
<<13-9-03 FOI request ack Cox.doc>>
Dear Ms Cox
Please find attached an acknowledgement of your FOI request dated
30August.
Best wishes
Peter Greenfield
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
<<13-9-04 response to FOI request E0007189 Cox.doc>> <<13-07-11 DL
Hermitage Quarry FINAL.pdf>> <<13-03-13 IR Hermitage Quarry.pdf>>
Dear Ms Cox
Further to my email to you yesterday, please find attached a response to
your FOI request of 30 August, along with a copy of the Secretary of
State's decision letter and Inspector's report in relation to the
extension to Hermitage Quarry.
Best wishes
Peter Greenfield
Planning Casework Division
Department for Communities and Local Government
1/H1 Eland House
0303 44 41687
Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.
Dear Peter Greenfield,
I am grateful for your prompt reply to my request for information. May I clarify for my records what you have said?
Is it a fact that the Secretary of State and/or the Inspector appointed by him in this case, DID NOT carry out any cost-benefit analysis or economic impact analysis, so as to ascertain the relative monetary value of Oaken Wood?
Or is it the case that they did this analysis, but you do not have the relevant information at your disposal?
I appreciate your patience
Yours sincerely,
Jacquie Cox
Dear Ms Cox
In determining this planning application the Secretary of State took account of all the inquiry evidence, the relevant
development plan documents, and the Inspector's report. Many of the inquiry documents and much of the detailed consideration concerned factual evidence on Oaken Wood. However, neither the Secretary of State nor the Inspector carried out an actual cost benefit analysis along the lines you set out.
Yours sincerely
Peter Greenfield
Dear Peter Greenfield,
Thank you for your patience and your prompt reply.
Yours sincerely,
Jacquie Cox
Dear Peter Greenfield,
I apologise for the need to return to this request again, but I require further clarification.
Could you also please confirm that:
a) the Secretary of State (SoS) and the Inspector appointed by him DID NOT conduct any sort of independent cost/benefit analysis regarding the value of, and need for, the ragstone to be quarried from the Western extension, other than taking account of any such analysis submitted by the applicant either in the initial application or subsequently to the inquiry.
b) the SoS and the Inspector appointed by him, did not carry out any independent stakeholder analysis, other than 'taking account of' the evidence submitted to the inquiry. By 'stakeholder analysis' I mean 'the formal process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed action, in order to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed'.
I appreciate your patience in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Jacquie Cox
Dear Ms Cox
Thank you for your further email of 13 September.
a) As previously noted, in determining this planning application the Secretary of State took into account all the inquiry evidence, the relevant development plan documents, and the Inspector's report. Many of the inquiry documents and much of the detailed consideration concerned factual evidence on the need for the ragstone. Whilst neither the Secretary of State nor the Inspector carried out a cost benefit analysis along the lines set out in your latest email, all the evidence submitted by all the parties - for and against the development - on the need for the ragstone was taken into account by the Inspector and by the Secretary of State in reaching his decision.
b) As to "identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected", the Inspector's report and the Secretary of State's decision letter set out detailed analysis of the impact of the proposed development on a wide variety of factors, including residential amenity, landscape, landfill and waste permitting, groundwater, sustainability and ancient woodland. However, the Secretary of Sate did not did not carry out an "independent stakeholder analysis" along the lines set out in your email.
Yours sincerely
Peter Greenfield
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