Clints Quarry, Moota, Lake District National Park, CA13 0QE

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

• Appeal A: whether the Authority's decision to refuse the application was well founded, turning on whether the 1974 planning permission was begun prior to 20 November 1979
• Appeal B: whether, if the 1974 permission was found not to have been implemented, it is possible to determine the conditions for the 1966 permission alone

What decided it

The appellant failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that the 1974 permission had been lawfully begun, and separately failed to demonstrate that working the 1966 permission beyond its conditioned limits would not adversely affect the integrity of the Clints Quarry SAC or that no alternative solutions or imperative reasons of overriding public interest existed.

The public interest benefits of the proposal (economic benefits, job retention, reduced transport mileage) did not outweigh the adverse impacts on the conservation aims of the Habitats Directive, so the benefits did not justify those adverse impacts.