A PARISH council appealing an abatement notice forcing it to make safe three mine features on its beach is claiming the order is "unnecessary and unjustified". Perranzabuloe Parish Council's legal action is against a Cornwall Council notice, dated December 13, 2012, regarding the sites at Droskyn beach, Perranporth.
In 2010, 11-year-old Eleanor Clarke fell to her death in a disused mine adit on the beach. Following the accident, the parish council installed steel grilles at the adit where she died, as well as issuing safety leaflets. The abatement notice requires urgent work on three former mine features at the beach.
The parish council's appeal is being brought, according to Bodmin Magistrates' Court list, on the grounds that the notice is "not justified and its requirements are unreasonable in their character and extent, and unnecessary".
The case was listed at Bodmin court yesterday (JAN 24), but counsel Sarah Vince, representing the parish council, said there had been a mistake because the notice stated appeals should be lodged with Bodmin court.
The Perranporth area in fact falls within the jurisdiction of the Truro Magistrates' Court.
Furthermore, Ms Vince said that there was disagreement between the parish council and Cornwall Council as to whether the abatement notice had been "served on the right corporate body".
The court was told the parish council faces a three-month deadline from December 13 in which to carry out some of the work required in the notice. Sancha Brett, representing Cornwall Council, said that it was concerned about public safety and he urged that the case be re-listed within the next 14 days.
The case was transferred to Truro Magistrates' Court for a contested directions hearing on February 7 on the issue of whether the notice had been served on the right body.
