Kane Haulage challenges county council notice
A ST ALBANS haulage company which attracted widespread public criticism for disrupting Redbourn residents with noise from crushing concrete is appealing against a county council enforcement notice requiring it to stop the activity.
Following complaints and a petition from villagers, Herts county council served an enforcement notice on both Kane Haulage, which was processing concrete at the Old Station Yard in Redbourn, and the owners of the site, London and Cambridge Property Services, to stop the activity and remove all associated waste.
The concrete crushing machinery was removed on June 16, the same day that the notice was served. In a statement the council alleged that Kane had been carrying out unauthorised concrete crushing without planning permission.
A spokesman for the county council this week confirmed that Kane had since appealed against the notice, with a date for the appeal hearing yet to be set.
County councillor for Redbourn and Wheathampstead, Maxine Crawley, said: “I am fully supportive of the action the county council has taken. I have no problem with Kane Haulage operating as a company but not at the expense of villagers’ quality of life.”
Environmental health officers at St Albans district council had been considering serving a noise abatement notice on Kane following complaints from residents about disruption caused by concrete crushing.
Officers had started compiling evidence from residents around the district, but a council spokeswoman said that a notice was not issued as the noise had stopped when the equipment was removed.
Villagers had lodged a petition claiming they were fed up with having their lives “completely disturbed by noise from activities carried out at the site by the Kane Group”. Petitioners said they noticed late last year that the intrusive noise of waste being crushed was travelling unimpeded across residential areas and the Ver Valley.
The Herts Advertiser contacted the Kane Group to discuss the appeal but the company declined to comment.
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