Quarry quarrel set to rumble
WHEN Hanson Aggregates announced they wanted to extend their site to the east of Northampton by another 35 hectares to quarry sand and gravel, there was widespread concern.
The area falls within the Nene Valley and at the moment is open green countryside.
Surely this plan would see the land turned into a building site, with diggers and heavy lorries spoiling the tranquility until now enjoyed by villages including Cogenhoe, Castle Ashby and Whiston?
Ask Hanson, however, and they'll tell you nothing could be further from the truth.
The quarry site has been in operation in one form or another since 1935. In recent years the plant has been used to process sand and gravel brought in from Bozeat quarry, about six miles away.
Hanson now wants to begin a
10-year sand and gravel excavation at the site south of the A45 between Cogenhoe and the company's existing processing plant in Station Road, Earls Barton.
When the plans were first announced a couple of years ago, it was to understandable objections. Would it cause lots of noise? Would the A45 be inundated with gravel-laden HGVs? And what about our much-loved countryside?
The level of objection was so strong the application ended up being a major part of a planning inquiry into quarries across the county.
A revised application, a small excavation site and extra attention to how the land will look after excavation is finished, is now with Northamptonshire County Council and Hanson says it has made every effort to address people's concerns.
David Weeks, communications manager, said: "Once the planning inspector decided the area could be dug for gravel a lot of people thought that's it, the battle's over. But then people arrived at the public exhibition thinking they had one last chance to de-rail it.
"The issues people were coming up with were not 'we don't want this' but 'we want to protect and preserve what we've got.' We can improve that. After extraction we can help provide a better landscape where people can live, work and walk their dog.
"The other main mis-apprehension was that this will be a massive quarry, but it will just be worked in small sections at a time. The disturbance to the land is tiny."
When excavation is finished in one section, the land will be restored while quarrying moves on to the next.
Senior estates surveyor Mark Page said: "We will be progressively restoring the land as fast as practically possible.
"This scheme has been designed by a landscape architect. It won't be turned into some kind of moonscape, far from it.
"Part of the extension site will be turned back to fields with more hedgerows, which will become wildlife corridors.
"For the northern part of the site, Natural England and the Wildlife Trust see this as an opportunity to re-instate a river habitat. There will be significant biodiversity gains with wet woodlands and river channels. There will also be footpaths through the fields and back along the river. We will be recreating the historical landscape."
But these words of reassurance have not appeased the objectors and a protest group has been formed to fight the plans.
Ted Barnes, chairman of the Save the Nene Valley Action Group, said: "The local community does not want this.
"The overall concern is that this is the last piece of natural valley in the Nene Valley between Northampton and Stanwick – everything else has been exploited for sand and gravel.
"We don't believe that taking additional sand and gravel from the Nene Valley should be the preferred strategy.
"The valley is now full of lakes and we wanted to ensure that this area would be returned after excavation took place to agricultural land, but we are concerned that this piece of the Nene Valley is going to go to water.
"It will become waste bogland – a water wilderness – with nobody accepting responsibility to look after it."
As for the concerns about noise from the site, the company has applied for working hours of 7am till 6pm Monday to Friday and 7am till 1pm on Saturdays, but work is likely to finish at 5pm on weekdays.
Mr Weeks said: "They'll hear more noise from the A45 than they ever would from a digger."
Even if the application for this site is turned down, an alternative quarry will have to be found.
Many argue that building materials have to come from somewhere, particularly if Northamptonshire is going to meet the Government's huge-scale house-building plans.
The consultation ends on January 19 and a decision is expected by the summer.
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