What ever you do, don’t mention the trees! Will councillors be gagged over fate of woodland?

The future of the wood - formerly known as Peak’s Covert - is likely to be determined tomorrow

A PARTIAL gagging order could be imposed on councillors at a North East Lincolnshire Council planning meeting tomorrow Wednesday (November 29).

Planning officers are keen to restrict discussion on a controversial scheme to fell hundreds of trees in an historic woodland to make way for 44 holiday lodges.

The site is off Hewitts Avenue,  a few hundred metres south of the Cleethorpes Tesco superstore. 

It is  adjacent to the Northen Powergrid electricity compound and the Altyre Way car showrooms complex.

Planning permission for the development was granted in 2015, not by councillors but by an individual planning officer under delegated powers.

He disregarded the representations of the council's then ecology officer, Mike Sleight, who  opposed the project. 

Because no  work started on the project within the statutory three-years, that consent has expired. Nature has enjoyed a reprieve - but for how long?

Fast forward to 2023, and two businessmen - applicant Sean Henderson and partner Alan French - are  keen to crack on with the development.

They and the planning officers would have liked the 2015 approval  to have again been made by a case officer  under delegated  powers without prior committee debate.

On July 13, a meeting   was held  between developers and NELC's head of planning accompanied by a project chief for NELC’s regeneration partner, Equans, which is employer of the planning officers. To save time and money, they agreed that no fresh planning application would be required.

Instead, there would a 'back door' route to consent  in the form of a Certificate of Lawfulness - an instrument allowing swift rubber-stamping of the proposal.

But any prospect of a speedy consent was scuppered by Cllr Hayden Dawkins, a ward councillor for Humberston and New Waltham, who exercised his right to call in the application for debate.

 Cllr Dawkins - ward councillor has called for debate

Whether it will be a full debate at tomorrow's meeting tomorrow is uncertain.

 In advance of their discussions, councillors have been told:  "It is most important to note that this is not a planning application where the merits of the proposal can be considered or assessed."

But councillors have minds of their own.Whether they comply with this ‘advice’ remains to be seen.

The threatened woodland (background) lies next  to an electricity compound