A license to dig ?

Re digging in Cornwall, is this anything to do with the rock emitting radon? I know it’s a problem there.

No, this was before the issue of Radon had been acknowledged, it was more to do with them being worried that we might find seams of pure tin/gold/ diamonds/King Solomons mines etc

Re digging in Cornwall, is this anything to do with the rock emitting radon? I know it’s a problem there.

Whilst radon is a concern in granite areas (including Cornwall) it is not the cause of the limit here. Mineral rights are seperate to land ownership and do not necessarily belong to the landowner. For an exploration project I was working on today the two diverged about 400 years ago. Fortunately the rights holder was recorded in the 1920’s and it then proved possible to track down their decendants, who recieved a pleasant surprise. If the mineral rights are not recorded on the title deeds then it is likely they reside with another party – often any estates etc which once owned the land.

As I found to my cost, development in planning terms is any change, even a hole in the ground will qualify.

Re digging in Cornwall, is this anything to do with the rock emitting radon? I know it’s a problem there.

There may also be ‘issues’ with the holders of the mineral rights for the area (if any) I seem to remember that when we lived in Cornwall many years ago, we were supposed to get written permission from RTZ before digging any deeper than 3ft, on our own property …

The answer – move quickly. Planning officers rarely do so. Dig your hole; examine its contents (if any); and backfill. Then when the planning officer arrives, proclaim – ‘Hole? What hole?’ – or if he’s a little brighter then try – ‘Development? What development?’!

Be careful re-Local Planning Departments – depending on what the land is currently used for, some interpret the mere disturbance of top-soil as ‘development’ – “been there, done that and got the tee-shirt!” as they say! :rolleyes:

The aim is to dig a big hole, pull out whatever might “or might not” be there, then fill in the big hole with top soil “or S.A.E ltd personel :diablo:”.

Bob T.

Be careful re-Local Planning Departments – depending on what the land is currently used for, some interpret the mere disturbance of top-soil as ‘development’ – “been there, done that and got the tee-shirt!” as they say! :rolleyes:

There are a number of rumours relating to what might be dumped at the site, & whilst I doubt than anything nearing a complete aircraft will be found, a few large-ish chunks would be nice.

Bob T.

Well of course Nick, the whole discussion about the Birmingham rumour-mill was in parallel with the Burma saga. In both cases it was all about supposedly deliberately buried ‘Crated & Inhibited’ Spitfires, (Ie; not crash sites or abandoned junk/scrap.) for which there is still no precedent. 🙂

It strikes me that with some of the obvious provisos mentioned in previous posts here, a landowner can do pretty much what they like, as long as it is not ‘Development’.

I went into this a few years ago when looking for a Hurricane wreck that crashed, but was subsequently disposed of in a rubbish pit local to the crash site – caused a fair bit of head scratching, but the consensus seems to have been that as the wreck was deliberately disposed of, at a site other than the crash site, then no licence was required – seems the “deliberately disposed of” bit is crucial? (Snoopy on here will be pleased! :p)

However, anyone digging big holes anywhere could fall foul of planning regulations and more specifically the local sites and monuments registrar or County Archaeologist (usually one in the same in my experience). So probably best to get some expert advice on whether there are any likely archaeological remains in the area – as far as I am aware, this does not include aircraft remains, despite what some officials seem to think.

As long as it isn’t an aircraft wreck, a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), or a Scheduled monument.
No Licence would be needed.