Elford Quarry

Had a good meeting this morning about an area between Fisherwick and Elford which has been quarried since the 1960s but has been dormant for the last 15 or so years.

Over recent years its turned into a beautiful, almost, nature reserve with the old quarry holes turning into stunningly attractive lakes. A new company bought the site, last year I think, and part of the original planning application from the 60s requires that the site be returned to its original state.

That means filling in the lakes with something called fly-ash and generally, it seems to me, ruining what is a really great wildlife haven. Anyway, there has been rather tense communications going on between the County regulators, a growing and very capable group of residents with a very large petition and the new owners. I’ve been a bit on the sidelines of this with so much other stuff going on so I decided to invite all parties to County Buildings to catch up with where we are and basically explain to me what the key stumbling blocks are.

We met in the, rather grand, Oak Room as it does tend to focus the mind for visitors and as I said earlier it was a good meeting. Had about an hour and a half and we’ve reached agreement that all sides will aim for the outcomes proposed by English Nature.

That’s actually a much bigger ‘give’ from the company’s point of view than anyone else. It means keeping much of the habitat exactly as it is. My only slight concern is making sure, on the ground, that it happens as there is still serious quarrying and work going on in other areas of the site.

I’m going to push for a specialist consultant to be on hand during the time that the restoration work begins. Hopefully the company will pay for that (I think we are starting to push the bounds a bit with that) although if they refuse point blank I’ll find some money from my own funding scheme to help.