Thank you to Roger Giles, County Councillor for Ottery St Mary Rural, for providing us with DCC's webcast viewing figures for 2012. The special meeting of the Development Management Committee on 26 April, the purpose of which was to receive representations from local communities on sites being consulted upon by DCC for future sand and gravel supply in East and Mid Devon, was the third most watched webcast. The issue of minerals and particularly where they are extracted is demonstrably important to the people of Devon.
In 1965, Straitgate Farm near Ottery St Mary in Devon was bought by ECC Quarries in the hope it would yield 20 million tonnes of sand & gravel. In 2001, Straitgate Action Group was formed to oppose the development and its potential harm to water supplies, ancient wetland habitats, protected species and much more. In 2023, Aggregate Industries – owned by Swiss giant Holcim – was finally granted permission to quarry just 1 million tonnes following a public inquiry. This blog records the story.