CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a sand and gravel quarry in Barford may have to wait until later in the year to find out if it is going ahead.
Warwickshire County Council has informed the Stop the Barford Quarry group that is requires more information from Smiths Concrete on its application for the proposed 220-acre quarry site on farmland at Wasperton and as a result a planning determination is unlikely before autumn at the earliest.
Issues remain over highways, landscape visual impact, noise, power grid capacity and air quality.
Smiths Concrete submitted a Regulation 25 response to WCC and a second public consultation opened in November last year, resulting in hundreds of objections from residents. Smiths Concrete plans to extract 1.8 million tonnes of aggregates from the site, currently productive farmland just 600 metres from Barford’s 220-pupil primary school and half that to nearby homes.
WCC has confirmed to Stop the Barford Quarry that landscape and visual impact remain a significant concern, particularly in the light of Smiths’ intention to run an eight metre high wash plant on the site that would affect nearby residents, visual amenity of the rural landscape and the approach to the Cotswolds. Further site visits are to be undertaken in the coming months, together with 3D visualisations from key viewpoints.
An important new issue has emerged regarding whether the site can be connected to the electricity grid to power the wash plant, as a three-phase power supply may not be available. Alternative sources of power such as large on-site diesel generators would produce significant noise and emissions. Intrusive noise and vibration from heavy machinery and site preparation also remains a concern.
Traffic impact from the proposed 220 HGV movements per day onto the A429, local roads and onward to M40/Junction 15 are another major issue, particularly Smiths’ proposed traffic signal-controlled access direct onto the A429.
And Stop the Barford Quarry Residents’ Committee commissioned a report from air quality expert Professor Dr Reza Ziarati who evidences the effects on human health of minute particulates produced by traffic exhaust and sources such as dust from quarries. Prof Ziarati’s report will be presented at an experts’ forum and workshop later this month in Kenilworth and subsequently submitted to WCC.
Stop the Quarry added that the second public consultation cannot be closed until WCC’s planning officer is satisfied that all statutory consultees have submitted their comments, which is not yet the case. Therefore anyone with new or updated comments of a material planning nature that have not previously been submitted can still send them to WCC via its planning portal.
