Hanson plans to reopen Rickneys Quarry

A planning application to reopen Rickneys Quarry could be submitted by operator Hanson after the company lodged a scoping request with the county council.

A scoping request can be made to the local authority to determine what information should be included any the Environmental Statement.

The reopened quarry would extract gravel from an extension to the north-east of the former quarry for a period of 5-6 years.

According to documents submitted by Hanson, The Company extracted sand and gravel from the land at Rickneys under two planning permissions dating from 1958. New planning conditions were issued on 13th February 2001 requiring extraction to cease by 31st December 2003 and restoration to be completed by 31st December 2005. This condition was amended in 2004 extending the date for final restoration of the site to 30th June 2006. The Company then submitted a planning application to extract approximately 1.24 million tonnes of sand and gravel from an area of 10.3 hectares (25.5 acres) to the east of the 2004 Permission in February 2006. It became known as the Eastern Extension Area and planning permission was granted on 23rd December 2009. An application to extend the time limit for implementation of the 2009 Permission was submitted in 2013 under special rules and a resolution for approval made. The delay in implementation was due to the poor trading conditions in the building materials market at the time. The extension of time planning permission was not formally issued and the 2009 Permission subsequently lapsed.

The new proposal is to extract and process 1.24 million tonnes of sand and gravel at the Eastern Extention area of Rickneys, and retention of 11.65ha of the former plant site area for a mobile processing plant, which is smaller and quieter than a permanent installation. Use of the existing dedicated site access and entrance will resume with highway improvements to improve visibility and allowing for HGVs to pull away onto Wadesmill Road. Extraction will be completed in phases allowing land to be progressively restored as extraction is ongoing. The deposit will be worked from south to north.

The county council's current Minerals Plan includes the area north of Bengeo as a Preferred Area for gravel extraction. However, a new Minerals Plan currently under consideration does not include the area. Until a new plan is adopted, the current plan remains in force as official council policy.