Weeford quarrying would blight local homes

I wrote not long ago about the staggering 150million tonnes of proposals from the aggregates industry to the County for quarrying in Staffordshire over the next 15 years. It’s called the Minerals Strategy and lays down how much and where aggregate extraction will take place in the county.

Lichfield Rural East, the area I represent, has got more than its fair share of those proposals. Five for extensions or brand new quarry sites including one of the biggest, a massive 25million tonnes over twenty five years between Hints and Weeford near to Lichfield. Staffordshire historically has provided 60% of all the aggregate quota for the West Midlands Region and I think it’s about time other areas take more of a fair share.

But, of course, it’s unlikely Labour at County will take that view because quarrying, in the main, only happens in more rural, and therefore Conservative, areas. The first key political decision will come from the Labour Cabinet Member for the Environment in March next year. Initial public consultation kicks off in September and finishes at the end of November.

Between December and March County officials will prepare an initial draft strategy around broad policy principles such as whether Staffordshire takes a lesser, similar or even greater share of the West Midlands total, if communities who’ve had quarrying over the recent past are given relief by favouring brand new sites or whether they get more of the same and also laying down some of the parameters for what is reasonable and what is not.

Once done, the current timetable means that the initial draft will go to John Wakefield, Labour’s decision maker on this, in March 09. If he accepts the principles laid down, the draft plan will go for wider and more detailed public and industry consultation before being examined by a Public Inquiry later in 09. Those initial principles agreed in March are really important and I don’t believe that decisions of such significance should be made so near to the end of the current County Council term. With elections in June next year those political decisions should be delayed so that whichever Party wins in June can make them.

The picture shows the hundreds of acres of rural countryside near Weeford which would be decimated by the massive quarrying proposals also blighting the 25 or so houses within yards of the possible quarry site.

One thing is vital. That is, local people must make their views known during this and the future consultation periods. I’ve seen examples recently where people have got upset because of large commercial or residential development on their doorsteps only to find they missed the chance many years before to oppose those plans early on.

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