Fish and Biodiversity on the Aire- Comment on plans for Skelton Grange Weir

At our December meeting we were encouraged to learn of the prospects for the Aire to provide a breeding habitat for thousands of salmon and an improved habitat for a wide range of other species.

A key barrier to fish movement are weirs. The weir at Skelton Grange can be removed to improve biodiversity. This was proposed as part of a planning condition attached to an application from Npower for development at their adjacent site.

Npower put in an application to remove the condition enforcing the removal of the weir if planned development went adhead at the adjacent site. Npowers application to remove the condition enforcing the removal of the weir has been refused. That means that npower will have to remove the weir as part of their development.

See the comments section for my response on the apllication.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Edi Walker one of our reps on the Climate Chnage Strategy Group for forwarding me the information on the application.

Anonymous said...

I objected to the application and made the following comment:

I think that condition no. 15 is a reasonable and necessary condition that is material to deciding the outcome of the original application (21/279/05/OT).

The weir needs to be removed to mitigate the negative impacts of the development on biodiversity and neighbouring sites. Development of the site should NOT be permitted if condition no. 15 is removed.

Permission for application 07/07275/OT should be refused and condition number 15 (from 21/279/05/OT) should be retained.