Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Holcim UK trials autonomous technology in Devon. What will be the human cost?

Mineral operators applying to extend or establish a new quarry will typically emphasise the number of jobs they will preserve or create, hoping to influence councillors on planning committees. 

Some companies even go to the press with tales of jobs that would be lost if quarry plans don't go ahead. In 2015, for instance, the headline East Devon quarry block ‘will put jobs at risk’ appeared locally:
THE livelihoods of East Devon quarry employees will be at risk if proposals for a 100-acre quarry on the outskirts of Ottery St Mary do not go ahead. 

Officials from Aggregate Industries, which runs quarries at Blackhill on Woodbury Common, and Venn Ottery, have confirmed that this is the reality if they cannot proceed with their plans to quarry Straitgate Farm near Daisymount roundabout. 

It is not clear exactly how many jobs could be affected but it is thought to be less than 10.
The reality was indeed less than 10. In the supporting statement for its planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries – now Holcim UK – confirmed: 
3.5.8 The number of full time employees at the site would be three. 
It’s a small number, although still exaggerated because: 
3.5.2 Mineral working would be carried out on a campaign basis, comprising two or three working periods or campaigns, with each campaign lasting five to seven weeks. 
Nevertheless, the number of jobs in the UK quarrying industry has been declining for decades. Back in 2012 we posted: 
Even over the last 10 years there has been a dramatic fall in employee numbers in sand and gravel, with the UK Minerals Yearbook reporting over 8000 employees in 2001, but under 3000 in 2010. The HSE says the "industry has difficulty attracting and recruiting staff" and "anecdotal evidence suggests an ageing workforce".
It’s not clear where the sand and gravel employment numbers have gone in recent years, although they are unlikely to have increased, judging by these ONS numbers. 


In 2019, the ONS estimated that 57% of jobs in the "quarry workers and related operatives" sector were at risk from automation.

We first posted about autonomous vehicles in 2018, when they were being trialled at a Swedish quarry. 

Last year, autonomous vehicles were trialled in Devon, when Sibelco hosted the UK’s first driverless dump truck at its china clay quarry near Plymouth. 

Last week, Holcim UK announced that it had also chosen Devon to trial autonomous technology, again at a china clay quarry processing secondary aggregates near Plymouth.

HOLCIM UK have taken part in a trial utilizing AI-powered autonomous technology to operate an excavator. The trial, which took place at the company’s Lee Moor sand and gravel quarry [sic], near Plymouth, Devon, involved a 23-tonne Develon crawler excavator fitted with autonomous technology from Swiss start-up Gravis Robotics. 

Once set-up and testing had taken place, the machine was tasked with feeding the hopper of a screener with sand and gravel at target performance rate of 100 cycles per hour. During two days of testing the machine was able to average 133 cycles per hour, shifting 1,500 tonnes of material daily with 99% accuracy and minimal spillage. 
Paul Mitchinson, head of mobile plant at Holcim UK, was quoted as saying: 
"We were excited to be able to take part in the trial at one of our quarries and see how autonomous technology could work and be successfully integrated into day-to-day operations.

"The introduction of this type of technology in our industry could lead to greater productivity through increased output and consistency, improved safety on site, and improved sustainability through optimizing the performance of large plant equipment.

"As a company, we are continuously seeking to innovate and to improve our ways of working in order to enhance productivity. This includes exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can support what we do to help us be more efficient." 
For greater productivity and efficiency – read fewer jobs. 

Holcim has had its sights on autonomous technology for some time.


Last month, it was announced that Holcim had signed "a ground-breaking agreement".
    
HDX and Gravis Robotics are collaborating to implement jointly developed autonomous technology using Develon’s equipment across Holcim’s operations, with a particular focus on quarry environments including: 

* Truck loading of blasted rock for efficient material transport 

* Feeding hoppers of mobile crushers and screeners with extracted materials 

* Confined material handling at asphalt and aggregate plants 

* Stockyard management, optimizing material flow and storage. 

Holcim’s quarrying and processing sites combined with their operational expertise provides the consortium with a global platform that can be used to enable the integration of autonomous heavy construction equipment. 

Through the adoption of autonomous machinery, Holcim want to realize increased productivity through increased output and consistency, increased safety by reducing the number of people on site…
Quarry operatives at Holcim UK, and planning committees, be warned.
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Thursday, 1 May 2025

Holcim UK’s Straitgate updates for February and March and now April – still awaited

Yes, you guessed it. Still no news. 

Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – has, for the third month running, not provided any update in relation to implementing its planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – monthly updates the company agreed to provide to us back in 2023. 

It’s obviously too much to hope that Holcim UK – part of the world’s largest cement conglomerate – would have the decency to keep local people informed of its plans, when something as damaging as a million-tonne sand and gravel quarry is about to land on their doorstep. 

Holcim UK plainly couldn’t care less, whatever its empty words proclaim: 
We recognise that active community engagement is critical for managing our impact...
Anyway, there is still no activity on site, and the monthly monitoring of boreholes and private water supplies – a requirement of the UU legal agreement – has not been undertaken since January.  

In fact, there has been no meaningful news from the company since last September, and Holcim UK now has just 8 months before its permission expires. 

As before, any update the company bothers to supply us will be posted below.
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Monday, 28 April 2025

We’ve fitted some solar panels, crows Holcim UK. What took it so long?

At long last, Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – is fitting solar panels to some of its factory roofs. Bravo. 

Last week, Holcim UK issued a press release celebrating the installation of 464 solar panels on its concrete blocks plant near Cheddar – Somerset sunshine to help power Callow operations – obviously looking for a pat on the back.


But really, why has it taken this energy-hungry, CO2-intensive, polluting company so long to start fitting solar panels to offset its enormous CO2 emissions and enormous environmental footprint? 

It can’t pretend it didn’t know there was a climate crisis. Twenty-five years ago, the company admitted: 
During 2000, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd used over 740 million kWh of energy throughout its production processes. It is estimated that this energy consumption resulted in the release of approximately 224,000,000 Kgs of carbon dioxide.
Although by 2007, the company's CEO at the time seemed to row back, worried that climate change had hijacked the public agenda: 
The public agenda seems almost to have been hijacked by climate change and the CO2 debate. Important as it is, for us the agenda has always been much bigger and includes biodiversity, controlling pollution, waste, water and local nuisance. Sustainability is larger still, bringing in people and products and I believe we need to achieve a better balance in the future.
Since then, the future arrived, and from the early 2010s the UK public has been fitting solar panels on their roofs in their droves. Now, more than 1.5 million households have solar panels. How many of those people issued a press release extolling their green virtues?


The future arrived a while ago too for other UK companies, many of whom have also installed solar panels. In 2011, Adnams Brewery installed 962 solar panel at its distribution centre in Reydon. In the same year, work began on installing 17,000 solar panels at Toyota’s vehicle plant in Derbyshire. In 2013, Sainsbury’s announced it had installed 100,000 solar panels across 210 of its supermarkets. In 2015, Marks & Spencer completed the installation of the UK's largest single roof mounted solar panel array with 24,272 panels at its distribution centre in Castle Donington – enough panels to cover 25 miles if laid end-to-end. Notable achievements, worthy of a press release or two. 

When did Holcim start fitting solar panels? Not until July 2024 did Luke Olly, Head of Decarbonisation at Aggregate Industries UK, announce: 
Completing our first major solar project on one of our biggest sites is a key milestone for Aggregate Industries. 
What was the company doing during the decade that Adnams, Toyota, Sainsbury’s, M&S et al. were covering their rooftops with solar panels? Hoping that climate change would go away? 

What dent will this key milestone make on the site’s energy consumption? 
A total of 944 solar panels have been installed on factory rooftops at the site... [which] can generate more than 415,000 KWh of power per year, equating to 7% of the site’s annual power needs… 
If sustainability truly is at the core of its strategy – as it so often claims – Holcim UK will have to do better than that.
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As Just Stop Oil disbands could climate activism turn uglier?


Today, the Guardian suggests future movements are likely to go underground:
You’re not going to see people prepared to put themselves out of action by sitting in a jail cell for years, when they believe we don’t have much time left. 
We’ve started seeing trains of coal being set on fire, arson attacks on cement factories, full-on riots between environmental protesters and the police. 
I think we’ve got a long way to go in terms of how bad things can get but in the next few years I think we’ll look back and what JSO did, blocking roads and throwing washable paint onto buildings, will seem mild.
Arson attacks on cement factories? Apparently so. In 2024, climate activists set fire to a cement factory in Berlin: 
Their action was, as they indicated, inspired by previous attacks by colleagues from France, Belgium and Switzerland who sabotaged concrete factories. According to the radicals from ‘Switch Off!’ concrete production is ‘totally deadly for the climate’ and generates more carbon dioxide than all air traffic.
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What happens when you build a city from wood?

... one study found that building with wood instead of concrete and steel in 80% of new buildings would help offset half of Europe’s construction industry emissions.
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Friday, 18 April 2025

Nature doesn't have a voice – but the public does

Holcim UK is in a bind with its proposed road modifications for Birdcage Lane. The planned modifications for the lane – required to facilitate access to the permitted quarry at Straitgate Farm for up to 200 HGV movements a day – are restricted by two majestic oaks, both protected by a Tree Preservation Order. 
The trees contribute to the amenity and character of the area and they are considered under threat from development and the impact of heavy machinery and vehicles.
Last August, we posted that almost 10 years on, Aggregate Industries is still struggling to produce a workable site access plan. Eight months further on, Devon County Council has confirmed that the company – now rebadged Holcim UK – has still not submitted the requested set of revised plans. 

Should the company be at all minded to allow these plans to risk harming the two notable oaks, sitting next to the lane and either side of its proposed entrance, it might consider the national fury that Toby Carvery rightfully received this week after felling a 500-year-old oak in Whitewebbs Park – see below. 

Toby Carvery, owned by Mitchells & Butlers, is now threatened with legal action from Enfield Council: 
The council had reported Toby Carvery to the Metropolitan police, but officers decided to take no further action as there was no preservation order on the tree. 
The Woodland Trust’s senior conservation adviser for trees, is quoted as saying: 
This is the most shocking fell I think I’ve ever seen in more than a decade working with ancient trees. In my view, and the view of many others, this is ecologically much more significant than the Sycamore Gap – and certainly a more irreplaceable tree. 

Ancient oaks are particularly rich in biodiversity, with habitats that take centuries to develop. They simply can’t be replaced by younger trees and can’t be replaced quickly.

Some of the biodiversity associated with ancient trees, like the Whitewebbs oak, is among the most threatened in Europe. 
Mitchells & Butlers apologised, and admitted "we need to tighten our protocols". No shit, Sherlock. 

The Whitewebbs oak had no tree preservation order. The two oaks at risk on Birdcage Lane do. The Woodland Trust says: 
Failure to obtain permission before carrying out work on a protected tree can result in prosecution, with fines of up to £20,000 in a magistrates’ court. Serious cases may be taken to trial in the crown court and offenders could face an unlimited fine if convicted.
Toby Carvery will no doubt be licking its wounds now, asking itself – too late of course – whether its PR disaster, and the subsequent damage to its corporate image and bottom line, was worth it. Reputations, as the company has found out, can be trashed overnight. 

Toby Carvery clearly missed the memo on corporate responsibility – in other words, responsibility for the landscape occupied, the heritage inherited and the communities served. Corporate responsibility does not stop at recycling bins and plant-based menus, or, for that matter, quarry liaison meetings and Quarry Keep Out signs. When companies brag about sustainability, community ties and green values – actions matter. The public has demonstrated that it won’t sit quietly by whilst corporates vandalise our natural history. Nature doesn't have a voice – but the public does. 

Of course, Holcim UK wouldn’t dream of harming two veteran oaks trees, would it? Because, you cannot preach sustainability whilst cutting down history.

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Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Does Holcim UK really want to engage with local communities?

On the subject of Local Communities, Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – claims: 
We’re a business with roots in neighbourhoods across the UK. We’re proud of the active contribution we make to the economic well-being of our communities. We also understand that we need to listen to the communities where we operate, and do what’s right for them to create positive social impacts. 
In connection with its recent rebranding, the company produced a positioning statement: Making Sustainable Construction A Reality. The document claims: 
We recognise that active community engagement is critical for managing our impact and regularly engage with resident groups to gauge their opinion.
Anna Baker, Holcim UK's Sustainability Director, is quoted as saying: 
...we know that true value comes from listening to our neighbours and understanding what matters most to them. Working this way, we can succeed on all fronts without negatively impacting those closest to our sites.
Gauge opinion, understand the need to listen, etc, etc. Presumably the company wants to hear both sides of the argument – from both supporters and critics – otherwise what’s the point? 

Holcim UK has given up posting on X, formerly Twitter – and why not, you might ask – but the company apparently still uses the platform "to answer any questions" – any question, that is, apart from ones from this corner of East Devon. 

Aggregate Industries blocked Straitgate Action Group on Twitter in 2018 – proof that we rattled the giant in some way. When the world’s biggest cement company blocks a tiny action group, you know you’re doing something right. At the time, we wrote: 
People will no doubt think that we must have bombarded AI with thousands of tweets to provoke such action. And if not, why not? 

Looking back though, we’re disappointed to find that we directed only 13 tweets to @AggregateUK in 2018, and just 9 in 2017. We really should have been trying harder! 

Plainly though, that was 22 tweets too many for AI and its social media experts; AI no longer wants to hear anything else from this group, thank you very much.
Since then the company has won permission to quarry Straitgate Farm; the fight should be over. 

Given all the above, you might think that Holcim UK would now be prepared to listen to this community, as it seeks to become part of the neighbourhood in Ottery St Mary. 

But more than six years on, we are still persona non grata and – at least on X – "blocked from engaging with them". 

New name, same company.

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‘Is legal action the only way to save the planet?’

A vast number of actors are responsible for emissions, making it hard to establish legal responsibility, and often the worst harms occur in a different continent to the worst emissions. But in the last decade, a series of court cases around the world have sought to change the legal status quo. “It’s been a huge shift,” said Adam Weiss, chief programmes and impact officer at ClientEarth, an environmental law charity that has spearheaded this approach. “Judges now see the environmental issues we’re facing as existential, and have allowed the interpretation of human rights law to shift to grasp that.”
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Wednesday, 9 April 2025

UK investigating fraud claims alleging ‘green’ HVO diesel contains virgin palm oil

The wonder fuel that Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) has pledged to use to extract and haul material from Straitgate is in trouble. 

We have posted about HVO or hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel before. Condition 22 of Holcim UK’s planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm says: 
Prior to the export of any sand or gravel from the site, a scheme which ensures that all heavy goods vehicles entering and leaving the site, together with all plant and equipment located within the site, use hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The scheme shall include details of how the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel will be monitored to secure compliance with this condition. All heavy goods vehicles and plant shall be used in accordance with the approved scheme. 
Aggregate Industries’ magical solution to its unsustainable 2.5 million mile haulage scheme for Straitgate Farm – a result of processing the as-dug sand and gravel 23 miles away at Hillhead near Uffculme – is to rely on hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, despite, as of early 2024, HVO being around 40 pence per litre more expensive than normal diesel... 

The concern must be that if every corporate is now going to be greenwashing their pollution away with the delights of HVO, where on earth will all the used cooking oil come from? And how many millions more acres of rainforest will have to be cleared to replace it? 
 ... industry whistleblowers told the BBC they believe large amounts of these materials are not waste but instead are virgin palm oil, which is being fraudulently relabelled. 

And data analysed by the BBC and shared with the UK's Department for Transport casts further doubt on one of the key ingredients in HVO, a material called palm sludge waste. 

Europe used more of this waste in HVO and other biofuels in 2023 than it is thought possible for the world to produce. 

UK consumption rocketed from 8 million litres in 2019 to about 699 million litres in 2024, according to provisional government figures. 

Its green credentials rely heavily on the assumption that it is made from waste sources, particularly used cooking oil or the waste sludge from palm oil production. 

But industry whistle-blowers have told the BBC that they believe virgin palm oil and other non-waste materials are often being used instead... 

"It's a very easy game," said Dr Christian Bickert, a German farmer and editor with experience in biofuels, who believes that much of the HVO made with these waste products is "fake". 

"Chemically, the sludge and the pure palm oil are absolutely the same because they come from the same plant, and also from the same production facilities in Indonesia," he told BBC News. 

"There's no paper which proves [the fraud], no paper at all, but the figures tell a clear story." 
Construction company Balfour Beatty has a policy of not using the fuel, citing sustainability concerns:
"We just are not able to get any level of visibility over the supply chain of HVO that would give us that level of assurance that this is truly a sustainable product," Balfour Beatty's Jo Gilroy told BBC News.
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Saturday, 5 April 2025

Cumbrian coal mine planning application withdrawn

Plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria – subject of these previous posts – are dead:

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UK construction output levels continue to fall

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Friday, 4 April 2025

Quarry decision ‘failed to assess climate effects’

Plans to build a quarry are in doubt after a council conceded to a legal challenge over how it assessed its possible impact on the environment.
Last year, Northumberland County Council approved a proposal to excavate dolerite - used to produce concrete - near Kirkwhelpington, which would see almost three million tonnes of material extracted over 20 years. 

Law firm Leigh Day said the authority agreed to concede to a claim it "failed to assess the likely climate effects of the development" relating to soil disturbance, meaning the grant of planning permission could be quashed. 

Campaigner John Winslow, represented by Leigh Day and supported by the Environmental Law Foundation, challenged the application in February. 

As a result, the council told Leigh Day it would concede that it did not comply with its obligations under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 by failing to assess the likely climate effects of the application. 

Ricardo Gama, from Leigh Day, said: "The council will now need to assess those impacts and reconsider its decision to grant planning permission."  
We help the voice of ordinary people and communities to be heard on matters affecting the environment in which they live. 

We exist primarily to help socially and economically disadvantaged communities which want to address their concerns, but lack the resources or information to do so. 
In relation to the Kirkwhelpington proposal, the charity writes: 
ELF had a victory in Northumberland, where an application was made for a 28-hectare aggregate quarry which proposed to extract 2.8 million tonnes of dolerite on a site of high ecological importance. The proposal site has a complex mosaic of habitats comprised of purple moor grass and rush pasture and lowland acid grassland, which are habitats of principal importance under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. It is also home to grassland fungi including waxcaps, which are globally endangered and particularly vulnerable to physical disturbance at the surface. White-clawed crayfish, which are a species of principal importance and are also globally endangered, are present in the nearby River Wansbeck to which the Site drains. The Wansbeck is one of their last strongholds, containing a population of international importance. 

Plantlife and Buglife, two highly respected national conservation charities, submitted objections to the development. When assessing the development, Plantlife cited research estimating that acid grassland can hold 90 tonnes of soil carbon per hectare, which is sensitive to land use change. This carbon had the potential to be released into the atmosphere during the course of development from soil disturbance, and that these carbon emissions had not been assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment. 

Despite these major environmental impacts, Northumberland County Council formally granted permission to the development at the beginning of February. With the help of Jessica Allen of No.5 Chambers, ELF sent a Pre-Action Protocol letter to Northumberland County Council which, in particular, pointed out that the failure to assess the climate effects of the development was an error in law. This is a point that has been made particularly salient following the landmark case of Finch last year. The Council conceded that they had erred in law on this basis, and agreed to enter into a consent order to quash the decision. Preventing the quarry development was a massive win for the environment and, thanks to Jessica’s assistance, our enquirer was able to achieve justice without having to go through the long, arduous and expensive litigation process.
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Holcim UK forced to scale back Uttoxeter quarry plan

Three years ago, Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) won permission to extend an East Staffordshire sand and gravel quarry. The company is now having to scale back its ambitions after it failed to secure ownership of all the land forming the application site. 

Does the company make a habit of submitting applications for land over which it has no rights? In 2016, Aggregate Industries, as it was then called, was forced to withdraw its application for Straitgate Farm, after it became clear that it did not have the necessary rights over third-party land to implement its site access plans. In 2020, the company submitted a planning application for a cattle crossing to facilitate its plans for Straitgate. This application also relied on third party land, and expired unimplemented three years later.

In Staffordshire, the county council approved the northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry in 2022, subject to conditions, but the company has now lodged an amended scheme. The Officer’s Report reads: 
1. On 4 August 2022, the County Council’s Planning Committee resolved to permit an application for a northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry... 

2. In accordance with the Planning Committee’s resolution, a Section 106 legal agreement is required to be completed prior to issuing the planning permission; and all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site are required to sign the agreement. 

3. The applicant is not able to secure an interest in all the land forming the application site and therefore, not “all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site” are available to sign the Section 106... 

4. The effect of the applicant not being able to secure an interest in all the land which would be subject of the planning permission principally means that only the sand and gravel within the southern part of the extension area can be extracted by the applicant... 

5. The proposed partial implementation of the approved proposals would result in a reduced extraction area enabling 674,000 tonnes of sand and gravel to be won and worked over a period of approximately 20 months. This reduction of the extent of mineral operations would amount to a loss of 318,000 tonnes of sand and gravel. 
Councillor Philip Hudson, said: "I think local people will be very pleased with what we’ve heard today because a lot of the objections before were about the amount of lorries coming out onto the B5030."
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Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Holcim UK’s Straitgate updates for February and March – still awaited

We’re still waiting for February’s update from Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) in relation to implementing its permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – monthly updates the company agreed to provide to us back in 2023.

In the absence of any news from the company since last September, and with now just 9 months to go before its permission expires, we can report that there is still no activity on site, and monitoring of boreholes and private water supplies – supposed to be performed monthly, and a requirement of the UU legal agreement – has not been undertaken since January. 

Any update that the company deigns to supply us for March will be posted below.
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Thursday, 27 March 2025

Devon sand & gravel sales in 2023: lowest on record – down 29% on previous year

Oh dear. Pity poor Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries). 

In the very same year the company finally won permission to quarry Straitgate Farm after a near decade-long struggle, the bottom fell out of Devon’s aggregates market, and sales of sand and gravel slumped by an eye-watering 29% – down from 521,000 tonnes to just 370,000 tonnes. 

What terrible timing. 

Devon’s sales of sand and gravel have remained fairly consistently around the half million tonne mark since 2011. Prior to 2023, 2020 had seen the lowest figure of the decade with sales of 0.437mt (possibly attributable to the effects of the Covid pandemic) whilst 2021 saw a rise back up to 2018 levels, with a sales figure of 0.54mt. 2022 sales remained on a similar level with a sales figure of 0.52mt but 2023 witnessed a fairly dramatic drop down to 0.37mt taking over from 2020 as the lowest figure of the decade by a reasonable margin. 
 
No wonder the company said it would need to mothball Straitgate Farm immediately following implementation of the planning permission. 

Why such a dramatic fall in the county’s sand and gravel sales? The same report says: 
2.23 Devon has suggested that the decrease in sales this year is a result of the economic uncertainty brought about by market volatility, worldwide events and the pandemic, which the UK economy is still recovering from. 
But that hardly explains a 29% slump, when sales of recycled aggregates, crushed rock, and secondary aggregates in the county fell by a far more modest 9%, 5%, and 2% respectively in the same period. 

The 29% fall is noticeably more than in the South West as a whole, where sales fell by 18%:
In 2023, aggregate sales of land won sand and gravel in the region totalled 2.26mt, a decrease from 2022’s sales figure of 2.75mt
The contrast is even starker nationally. The MPA’s 11th Annual Mineral Planning Survey Report says that in 2023 across the country, “land-won primary aggregate sales decreased by 5.3%”, with sand and gravel down 7.1%. 

So why 29%? As the largest producer of sand and gravel in the county, was part of the decline self-inflicted? Did Holcim UK drop the ball? Could its prices for instance be too high? 

And what prospect now for expensive HVO-fuelled 2.5-million-mile haulage schemes? How will the market ever tolerate that? 

Things have not improved across the country since 2023. In February this year, the MPA reported: 
...ready-mixed concrete, ubiquitous to all types of construction projects, faced a 10.8% annual decline in 2024, reaching its lowest level in over 60 years. Primary aggregates sales declined by 2.6%, with sand and gravel particularly impacted due to weak demand from the struggling ready-mixed concrete market, where it is mostly used. 
The heady days of the 80s and 90s, when sales of unsustainable primary virgin land-won sand and gravel exceeded a million tonnes a year, are fortunately long gone. Now the more sustainable alternatives of secondary and recycled aggregates are taking over. Just in the last 10 years, the trend has been only one way, as the graph below shows. In Devon, land-won sand and gravel is now out-sold by both secondary and recycled aggregates, having gone from being 39% of the mix to just 26% – a trend we previously pointed to here and here.

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Wednesday, 26 March 2025

‘We don’t just talk the talk’ – Really?

In promoting the rebrand from Aggregate Industries, Holcim UK – with seemingly little left in the marketing pot – is proud to tell you about its sustainable billboard:
 

But, let’s not be too harsh – the rebrand to Holcim UK is apparently "a really clear signal of intent of our commitment to a sustainable future."

Why the name Holcim should signal such intent is anybody’s guess; Holcim – the world’s largest cement company – is one of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters on the planet. 

However, the rebrand goes further, allegedly offering a chance for the company to revitalise its Place for Nature campaign – in part "to create a space for our colleagues to sit and enjoy and be part of nature whilst at work". Yes, seriously. 

Isn’t that comforting to know – as company bulldozer drivers up and down the country rip up existing wildlife habitat, like the ancient hedgerows due to be grubbed up at Straitgate? The company says: 
A strategy must be for the employees as much as the employer, and it’s vital they feel part of the overall sustainability journey. For us, that meant providing individual areas of ownership, a key element of which is creating ‘a place for nature’ across all our 200 sites nationwide.
How’s the plan going? The company’s latest sustainability report tells us: 
We developed 29 places for nature in 2023 which fell short of our target.
How hard can it be to put up a bird box or insect hotel?
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Monday, 17 March 2025

Straitgate’s ‘revolutionary’ working scheme not being deployed at Penslade

Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) doesn’t intend to deploy Straitgate’s "revolutionary" working scheme at Penslade. 

For a scheme that allows more material to be recovered, isn’t that funny? How many aggregate companies would forgo another metre's depth of material given half a chance? 

For the company’s new application for Penslade – where there are few people nearby wholly reliant on private water supplies: 
One metre. It’s as clear and simple as that, and the Environment Agency has already said it has no objection to the application. 

Oh, what a different story it has been for Straitgate Farm, where for 12 months back in 2015 the company wouldn’t even come clean that the base of mineral extraction has been set at 0m above maximum recorded groundwater levels – or at least an imprecise model of them – and that a "revolutionary" seasonal working scheme is to be deployed: As we posted at the time: 
AI's seasonal working scheme has now been described as "revolutionary"; not by us, but by someone on the other side closely connected to all this. 

How exciting! Local people will be thrilled. Thrilled at the prospect of being part of an experiment, where their drinking water supplies are reliant on the success of this "revolutionary" scheme; a scheme that relies on groundwater levels falling over the summer months to allow AI to quarry down to the maximum water table level, rather than leaving the 1m unquarried buffer above the maximum water table typically employed to safeguard surrounding water supplies.
So, a 1m buffer is to be retained at Penslade to protect the water environment, whilst a 0m buffer is to be retained at Straitgate – where there are more than 100 people reliant on private water supplies, as well as farms and businesses. 

No, it doesn’t make any sense to us either. 

It’s a story we won’t dredge up again, although it has been covered in these posts from 2015 to 2018 for anybody at all interested: 



 

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Friday, 14 March 2025

Aggregate Industries rebrands as Holcim UK

Today, Companies House filings confirm that Aggregate Industries UK Limited has changed its name to Holcim UK Limited – aligning with its Swiss-based parent, which acquired the company in 2005.

EDIT 17.3.25 Holcim UK claims it is set on a "new strategic direction" which will see the business "align more closely with its Swiss-based parent company":
Holcim UK’s strategy will see the organisation target significant growth in sales and sustainability – with particular focus on decarbonisation, circularity and nature... etc etc
No doubt, we'll all be watching to see whether the walk matches the talk.

Let's at least hope there's a focus too on maintaining proper warning signs for cyclists – given there clearly wasn’t on the truck used for the publicity shots.
 
In a line reminiscent of the film Love Actually, Lee Sleight, CEO of Holcim UK, said:
Our evolution from Aggregate Industries to Holcim UK is much more than a rebrand.
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Brazil mining dam disaster: Trial concludes in UK’s largest class-action lawsuit

The trial over damages from the 2015 Mariana mining dam disaster in Brazil has concluded. The dam was owned by Samarco, a joint venture between Brazilian mining firm Vale, and Anglo-Australian BHP. Previous posts on tailings dam collapses in Brazil can be found here. 
More than 600,000 Brazilians, 46 local governments and about 2,000 businesses are suing BHP over the disaster in a lawsuit worth up to £36bn. 
The lawsuit, one of the largest in English legal history, began in October and ended on Thursday with closing submissions. 
“I will produce a judgment as soon as I can,” the judge, Finola O’Farrell, said as she announced the end of the trial.
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Monday, 10 March 2025

Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for February – still awaited

With just 10 months to go before Aggregate Industries’ permission to quarry Straitgate Farm expires, and with monthly monitoring of Private Water Supplies currently ceased in breach of its Unilateral Undertaking legal agreement, and with no sign of the revised site entrance plans called for last July, or even the exploratory investigations required beforehand, and with infiltration tests to verify the surface water management plan still waiting to be done, and the four boreholes planned for last summer still to be drilled, and a multitude of schemes to meet pre-commencement conditions still to be agreed with Devon County Council, and with an application to quarry 3.9 million tonnes of sand and gravel at Penslade next to Hillhead now validated by Devon County Council, has the company lost interest in Straitgate? 

It is certainly staying very quiet. 

Aggregate Industries had agreed to provide monthly updates of its progress, in relation to implementing its permission to quarry the site. 

Last month, the company anticipated being in a position to provide an update at the end of February, having reported nothing new since the beginning of last September. 

No update has been forthcoming – despite a reminder sent to Aggregate Industries a week ago. 

Devon County Council has also been kept in the dark. 

Any update provided by the company will be posted here, as and when received.
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Glendinning wash plant ‘reduces reliance on imported sands’

In 2021, a planning application by Glendinning to extend Linhay Hill Quarry, a limestone quarry near Ashburton adjacent to the A38 in the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, was approved by the Dartmoor National Park Authority – as we posted about here. 

Last week, it was reported that the site’s main wash plant has been upgraded: 
Creating various limestone aggregates from 6mm to 20mm, the site also produces 0-4mm washed, crushed aggregate fines (black concrete sand). This black sand is mixed with traditional china clay sand, before being used in ready-mixed concrete at the firm’s plants within the quarry and in nearby Plymouth and in Exeter. 

By being able to use a larger percentage of the black sand within the ready-mixed concrete plant, Glendinning have been able to reduce their reliance on imported sands, lowering their carbon footprint and reducing truck transport on local roads.
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Thursday, 6 March 2025

Aggregate Industries submits planning application to extend Hillhead Quarry

Aggregate Industries has submitted a new planning application to quarry sand and gravel in Devon – despite not yet implementing its permitted plans to quarry Straitgate Farm, and despite complaining that current economic conditions mean its plans for Straitgate may need to be mothballed. 

Today, Devon County Council validated the company’s application to quarry land south west of Penslade Cross, DCC/4424/2025, an extension to its quarry at Hillhead near Uffculme, that is expected to yield 3.9 million tonnes of saleable sand and gravel over a 13-year period: 
Proposed extension of Hillhead quarry for the winning and working of sand and gravel with restoration using imported inert fill, inclusive of a new internal haul road and the retention of the existing mineral processing facilities
The land is owned by Aggregate Industries, and has the same type of material that underlies Straitgate. In total, there are thought to be some 23 million tonnes at Penslade, 8 million tonnes of which are allocated in the Devon Minerals Plan. The site sits a short distance from the company's processing plant. 

Aggregate Industries’ planning application for Penslade has been expected for some time. In 2021, the company was granted permission to drill boreholes around Penslade to monitor the watertable. At the Straitgate appeal, it became clear that the company had told Devon County Council that an application would be submitted in 2023. However, only in September 2024 did the company issue a newsletter inviting locals to a drop-in event the following month to publicise its plans.

 

In this newsletter, the company reminded us – despite having won permission to quarry Straitgate – that: 
Hillhead Quarry is the main source of sand and gravel in Devon and is Aggregate Industries’ only sand and gravel quarry in the south west.
The proposed Hillhead extension is identified as a minerals allocation in the Devon Minerals Plan as the replacement resource for the existing Hillhead sand and gravel quarry, which on current production rates has permitted reserves until c. 2028/9. We are starting the planning process for our Hillhead extension now in order to allow sufficient time to enable an orderly and planned transition of mineral working to the new extension area to take place in c.2028/9. 
Clearly any material won from Straitgate in the intervening period – which is only permitted to be processed at Hillhead – does not figure in those timescales. Earlier this year, the company won permission for another 460,000 tonnes of sand and gravel at Hillhead, which will see it through until this new application is decided. 

Ever since Aggregate Industries moved its sand and gravel processing operation to Hillhead back in 2018 – after it was forced to move its operations away from Blackhill on Woodbury Common, part of the East Devon Pebblebed Heaths in the East Devon AONB – it has made economic and environmental sense to source raw material closer to the processing plant. It made no sense to source material from Straitgate, 23 miles away. Given we have a new application for Penslade, alongside the as yet unimplemented permission for Straitgate, perhaps the penny has finally dropped. 

At the Public Inquiry deciding the fate of Straitgate – with its barely 1 million tonnes – the Planning Inspectors chose to ignore the 23 million tonnes of sand and gravel sitting at Penslade, arguing there was "a shortage of sand and gravel in Devon", and writing: 
82. Although development of the allocated site west of Penslade Cross would contribute significantly to supply, there is no immediate prospect of this coming forward, and our decision must be based on the current situation with respect to sand and gravel supply.  

137. We have already noted that there is little prospect of the allocated site at west of Penslade Cross coming forward in the near future. Therefore, any advantage that that site would have over the appeal site in terms of its proximity to Hillhead Quarry is not material to our decision.
Even Aggregate Industries chose to forget there was any gravel in the fields around Hillhead, when it was trying to win permission for Straitgate. At the time, we posted AI’s greenwash document assumes no gravel at Hillhead, not 25%, not 5%, not any!

And yet, just two years on, a planning application for Penslade has indeed come forward – as we all knew it would – which is expected to provide enough material for years to come. 

So, clearly, there is no shortage of sand and gravel in Devon, and – as we have argued for the last two decades – zero need for mineral from Straitgate Farm.
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