Plans to install an EV charging hub on an industrial estate in Dudley, West Midlands, have been refused following an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate over concerns posed by disused coal mines in the area.
Dudley Borough Council initially rejected the plans from Zest Eco to build a 12-bay hub served by six chargers, complete with a coffee shop and advertising totem sign.
The council cited three key grounds for its refusal: first, that the site would involve the loss of trees protected by preservation orders; second, that the development would bring about “the loss of part of the existing Green Network”; and, finally, that the site for the proposed hub was in a Development High Risk Area due to historic coal-mining activities, and “insufficient information” had been provided by the developers to cover this concern.
Zest Eco lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate, which subsequently upheld the council’s decision to refuse the application.
The Inspectorate ruled that while construction of the charging hub would “directly affect” a number of protected trees, it considered that “the benefits associated with public charging facilities would outweigh…the harm to the loss of trees and its effect on visual amenity”; the authority ruled that in this case a decision should be taken “other than in accordance” with council policy that seeks to protect trees, citing the ecological benefits brought about by electric cars among its reasons.
The Inspectorate also stated the plans posed ”no conflict” to Dudley’s Green Network policy, which seeks to improve and integrate green spaces, partly due to the location and nature of the group of trees in question.
The Inspectorate rejected the appeal nonetheless, though, ruling that the Coal Mining Report provided by developers in the course of their planning application “does not provide an assessment of the potential risks posed to the development from historical coal mining activity”, and that it was “absent of detailed technical information” to determine if the ground beneath the proposed hub would be unstable due to historic coal mines.
