CONCERNS are being raised over new planning applications that have been submitted, with consequent changes to the workings at quarries at Stowe Hill and Clearwell, with fears about the number of lorries that will be used to meet new quarrying targets.

In a statement released to the Review, the Clerk to Newland Parish Council, Richard Crigh­ton wrote: “Breedon Aggregates England Ltd, (BAE), the owner of Clearwell and Stowe Hill quarries, having withdrawn the two planning applications submitted last year have now submitted a new application. The new application is very similar in some respects to the previous one. They are seeking to move all the equipment, offices, weighbridge etc from Clearwell quarry in to Stowe Hill quarry and construct a new haul road from Stow Hill quarry to the B4228 at The Bearse (between Trow Green and St Briavels).

“Planning permission for both these aspects was granted to the previous owner of the quarries but it was the strong public opposition to BAE’s original reluctance to implement these changes which has caused them to rethink their strategy. In addition they plan to install a replacement concrete batching plant. What was not in last year’s application, and which concerns us, is a request to install an asphalt plant with all the associated toxins and smells that will bring to the area to add to the noise, dust and traffic fumes from current operations.

“In order for the equipment to be relocated the floor of Stowe Hill quarry has to be excavated down a further six metres, and we are told this will take four years, so, until then, residents will still have to suffer all the current inconveniences of noise, dust, vibration and filthy roads.

“So some concessions have been made, but in this world there’s no such thing as a ‘free lunch’ and the price residents are being asked to pay is an enlargement of the quarry area to the same extent as previously sought: about 153 acres, and an increase in output from 600,000 tons per year to 800,000 tons per year, with extraction in the enlarged quarry expected to total over 15 million tons of limestone over almost 20 years.

“The anticipated number of HGV movements associated with this level of output is 412 per day – that’s one every 1 minute 48 seconds through Coleford for 11 hours a day five-and-a-half days a week. There will be a total of 25 HGVs through Lydney and 21 through St Briavels every working day. All this in addition to HGV’s owned by other hauliers using the same roads.

“The company, in its application, undertakes to operate within all the legal limits with regard to noise, dust, emissions, vibration etc; however it does not supply any details of how it will achieve this. We are concerned that both the Forest of Dean District Council and Gloucestershire County Council do not have and will not have sufficient resources to effectively monitor activity at the site and enforce any conditions and legal requirements.

“In addition, Newland and St Briavels Parish Councils remain seriously concerned over the effects of this proposed development on the ecology and hydrogeology of the area, the effect on heritage assets and the landscape as well as the tourist industry which plays a very large, and growing, part in the local economy.

“We are still assesing the full implications of the application and will be making a robust objection in due course. We have arranged a public meeting in Clearwell Memorial Hall on Wednesday, February 24 at 7.30pm (as we did last year and which was attended by more than 100 residents) at which we will explain the application in detail and invite comments from the public. Thereafter we would urge you to send your objection to Gloucestershire County Council no later than the end of February.

“It is important to note that as this is a new application, representations made to GCC on the old applications will not be taken in to account; thus it is vital that everyone lodges a new objection.”

Comments on the application should quote reference 15/0108/FDMAJM and be sent to:

Jason Betty, Planning Officer, Gloucestershire County Council, Shire Hall. Gloucester GL1 2TH or by email to [email protected]