A new strategy for dealing with the disposal of silt dredged from Peel marina has suffered a major setback.

An application to treat dredged sediment for reuse in a remediation scheme at Snuff the Wind has been refused by the planning committee.

The vote was split three-three and the plan thrown out on the casting vote of chairman Rob Callister MHK.

He questioned why a scheme of such national importance had not been ‘called in’ by the Council of Ministers.

Concerns were raised about why alternatives had not been considered, why the material had to be treated on site and about the impact of the 60-a-day movements of HGV carrying silt from the dewatering lagoon to the mine and back.

Three applications related applications were considered by the island’s planning committee at its meeting on Monday.

The first, a retrospective application submitted back in 2022 by the Department of Infrastructure, to turn the temporary marina silt storage site at Rockmount on the Poortown Road into a permanent facility (22/00287/B) was approved by five votes to one.

Objector Trevor Cowin asked why the DoI had not been prosecuted for failing to comply with the five-year planning condition, consent having expired in August 2020.

A second DoI application (24/00301/B), again retrospective, to extend to December 2027 the lifetime of the lagoon at Ballaterson Farm, Peel, used for dewatering and storing the silt, together with the associated discharge pipeline along the River Neb, was also approved by five votes to one.

This was despite the application for Cross Vein (25/90698/B) being rejected.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture’s proposal would have seen the transportation of sediment silt lagoon to the mine, treatment of it on-site, and the material used as a capping layer across 'the deads' to reduce surface run-off and the amount of heavy metal contaminants going into the River Neb catchment.

A barren ‘moonscape’ site would have been returned to heathland, the committee was told.

Periodic dredging is carried out at Peel marina because of the build-up of sediment. It was last dredged in 2020 and 2021.

Chemical analysis has recorded concentrations of lead and zinc that exceed levels which would allow it to be deposed of at sea.

Director of harbours David Gooberman told the committee that a disposal method for silt currently in the marina was still being working on.

Cross Vein mine, known as ‘Snuff the Wind’, closed in 1881 and in recent decades was used by off-road motorbikes until this was banned in 2020.

Kirrie Jenkins, speaking to oppose the plan for the mine, said that DEFA did not own the whole site, there had been no meaningful public consultation and the application should ‘fall at the first hurdle’.

Asked about what binding agent would be used to treat the silt, senior project manager Jeremy Reece admitted that the actual process had yet to be determined.

Mr Callister queried the timing of the project, which had been planned to take place from August to October.