THE LONG-RUNNING fight against a proposed quarry in south Warwickshire has gone interactive.
Barford Residents’ Association have been battling for nearly a decade to prevent a 220-acre sand and gravel quarry opening on their doorstep in neighbouring Wasperton.
And campaigners have now launched an interactive website highlighting the threats, as they perceive them, posed by opening a quarry at Wasperton Farm, which is included in Warwickshire County Council’s Mineral Plan.
Clicking on an interactive map on the new website pins surrounding towns and villages to show the potential effects of the quarry to each area.
Campaigners have long argued there could be severe health consequences – particularly for children and elderly residents – from tiny silica particles being released into the atmosphere.
They are also concerned at the prospect of some 200 extra HGVs and other excavation machinery on the already congested A429 during the planned 15 year operation of the quarry.
And they are angry at the potential loss of productive farmland, and increased flooding risk to the River Avon and its tributaries, along with contamination from run-off.
Smiths Concrete, which is looking to operate the quarry, has said claims about health hazards ignored up-to-date evidence, adding the potential air quality and dust hazards from quarries were well known and understood and were addressed by stringent regulatory controls set to protect health.
And the firm said it had “developed robust proposals” that included much of the site remaining agriculturally productive during operation of the quarry.
Warwickshire County Council is set to open public consultation on the plans in September.
Visit www.stopthebarfordquarry.org to view the new website.
