Extended News Items

RML secure planning success for renewable fuel project

Local firm Clifford Jones Timber approached RML to provide environmental support for the design and planning application needed to establish a wood fuel pellet plant. Grant funding conditions meant that securing planning permission quickly was essential. RML quickly carried out the Screening and Scoping stages under the Environmental Impact Assessment regulations, and presented these in one report to the planning authority. This recommended that a formal EIA was not required and presented the scope of a Supporting Statement. In-house and external specialists began their work immediately so that possible environmental concerns such as noise generation, dust emissions and traffic were fully considered and described within the planning application. A combination of discussions with many departments of the local authority, detailed information in the planning application, and collaboration within the client's design team meant that the application drew few objections and could be passed unanimously by the Council at the first opportunity.

The plant will use residues from the company's existing timber processing operations, dried using heat from a waste wood burner, to produce uniform wood pellets suitable for use in automated heating systems for offices and commercial or civic premises. The fuel is carbon-neutral, making good use of an otherwise waste material, and the operation will create some 15 jobs in Ruthin.

Mr Alan Jones, Managing Director of Clifford Jones Timber, expressed his gratitude for the way in which the RML team had contributed so positively to achieving the planning permission against the clock.

Acknowledgements:

Building design - R Arwel Davies

Process Engineering - Barnett Engineering

To view the planning drawings and Supporting Statement, visit the Denbighshire County Council planning website at:

RML join the Phoenix Park Expert Working Group

RML have been invited to join an Expert Working Group, set up by the Irish Governments Office of Public Works, to develop a new Conservation Management Plan for Phoenix Park in Dublin. Established as a royal deer park in the 17th century, Phoenix Park covers over 700 hectares and is one of the largest public parks in the world. Enclosed within its 7 mile long wall are five separate demesnes including Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the President of Ireland, the residence of the US Ambassador, Dublin Zoo, a Polo Ground and other sports facilities and a substantial herd of deer and many hectares of grassland and deciduous plantations. Dublin's urban area has expanded to enclose Phoenix Park. The Conservation Management Plan will set out the objectives, policies and proposals for conserving and managing this unique and extraordinary historic landscape.

RML success in Institute Awards

RML's long-running project to produce a section of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage in Ireland was rewarded with the top prize in the Research category of the Landscape Institute Awards 2007. The judges described it as "an impressive piece of work that hopefully will be taken further... This project puts Ireland in the vanguard of discovering, mapping and logging historic landscapes." Project Manager Andrew Sumner, RML's Principal Landscape Architect, was accompanied by representatives of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Cork City Council as he collected the award at the ceremony recently. The project used archive sources to identify the former locations of gardens, town parks and country estates across Ireland. These were catalogued using software designed by RML's Data Services unit, to form a readily-accessible source for researchers and the public. Further work using aerial photographs has classified the sites according to their present-day condition and historic significance, and prepared a system of site-based assessment which will now be carried out across Ireland.

Click on the link below to download a pdf of our submission for the award. Please be aware that it is a large file of approximately 5MB.

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