94% say no in quarry consultation

One of the major issues in two of the very rural areas of my patch is the quarry consultation which the County is undertaking to decide how much, and where, the 150million tonnes of industry quarrying proposals will actually happen.

The County kicked off the consultation a couple of months ago and my biggest concern was that somehow it might go ‘under the radar’ and local people may have missed the chance to make their views known. As it happens I’ve been fortunate in the amount of publicity it has attracted and about 200 people have made comment on the proposals at Bucks Head Farm and Fisherwick.

That’s a fair proportion of the population in the areas affected and out of those who have made their views known a massive 94% have given the thumbs down to the quarry plans locally. It’s the first part of the consultation with another year or so to go. I’m now working at trying to get the Region to reduce the amount the West Midlands contributes to the UK’s aggregate totals and, in turn, the amount Staffordshire contributes to the regional quota.

My Conservative Group at County have agreed to reduce the total Staffordshire contributes if we take control at the elections in June. So far, Labour have paid little attention to the quarry issue at all meaning, potentially, a continuation of our county contributing a massive 66% of the entire West Midland total. And that’s too much!

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