Culm Waste & Minerals Group have a new website, and can be found on Facebook. In their latest blog they are critical of Aggregate Industries' recent renewed activity at Hillhead Quarry, and have launched a petition with DCC calling for HGVs to be re-routed on safety grounds. They mention AI again not having the required consents in place before starting work*. They also make reference to AI's sale of Bishops Court Quarry in Exeter, used for aggregate distribution and a ready-mixed concrete plant, but now proposed for up to 250 houses - further piecemeal selling of the AI estate.
CWMG point to liaison group minutes where DCC confirms:
With regard to the Minerals Plan, the intention remains to publish the pre-submission draft for consultation in late summer/early autumn. No decision has yet been made on the delivery of further sand and gravel resources as we are awaiting further information from the mineral operator.
A year after the consultation, a year after communities made the effort to say what they thought of DCC's preferred sites for future sand and gravel quarrying, AI has still not told DCC how it proposes to overcome the multitude of issues raised by statutory consultees and local people alike. AI had promised a response in January, but now hopes to deliver it later this month. As CWMG say, AI "does as it pleases and its largest clients in the South West, the Councils, don’t stand in its way".
* postscript: DCC has now taken "action over illegal store" at Hillhead Quarry.
* postscript: DCC has now taken "action over illegal store" at Hillhead Quarry.
