The Peak District National Park Authority meets on Friday to decide its next course of action, should a Public Inquiry into quarry operations at Backdale on Longstone Edge have to be cancelled. The special meeting on Friday (March 24) at Bakewell Town Hall, will consider the options if the Planning Inspectorate rules that the Authority's enforcement notice at Backdale was null and void.
If this were to happen, the inquiry, which is due to resume in April, would be cancelled. The move follows a recent High Court case on a quarry in Wales where an enforcement notice was declared to be null – the Planning Inspectorate is now deciding whether the same ruling could apply to the Backdale case.
Meanwhile the National Park Authority is still making preparations for the inquiry, due to re-start at Calver Village Hall on April 4, following postponement last September. The purpose of the inquiry is to take action against quarry operators MMC Mineral Processing Ltd. and landowner Bleaklow Industries Ltd, and was aimed at stopping limestone extraction at Backdale beyond the scope of the 1952 planning permission.
It is hoped that the Planning Inspectorate's decision will be known before the Authority's special meeting at 10am on Friday. If the Planning Inspectorate decides the enforcement and stop notices still stand, then this special meeting will be cancelled, and the public inquiry will go ahead.