Christmas update on AI’s progress with Straitgate – in words and pictures

Christmas is almost upon us, and yet another year has passed in the Straitgate saga.

For new readers, this story has been going on some time: Aggregate Industries' current planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm first went live in June 2015. It was withdrawn in March 2016, only to be resubmitted in January 2017. Preparatory work, however, started years before that, and the very first application to quarry Straitgate was submitted back in 1967.

How much further have AI's plans advanced in 2018?

There's an assortment of information that DCC still requires from AI. The last time any information from AI and its consultants was posted on DCC's planning website was in September 2017. One year later, in September 2018, the Leader of DCC advised MP Hugo Swire:

We are still awaiting this information from the applicant which is why there has been no apparent movement on these matters.

What an earth can be so complicated to cause such delays? you might wonder. If it's any clue, the information AI still has to supply ranges from how agricultural movements will be managed across Exeter Road and the farm itself, to revised plans of the working area taking account of the elevated groundwater levels recorded earlier in the year.

Whilst outwardly there has been no progress this year, in some respects AI’s application has actually gone backwards. The company’s groundwater model was shown to have failed - by up to 2.8m - and there is consequently now even less material to win. When we joked last Christmas about two cows, how AI’s recoverable resource had effectively fallen from 33 cows in 1965 to just two cows, little did we know then that the company would then go on to lose part of one of those cows too!

Our updates since September 2017 have followed a common theme: AI requests deferral, AI’s application for Straitgate Farm lurches from one delay to another, More delays to come, AI delays yet again, Three years on and yet more delays, Determination date for AI’s Straitgate Farm planning application extended yet again, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm delayed again, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 5th time, AI’s application will now stagger into its 5th year – 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019…, AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 6th time.

In pictorial terms, these delays might be represented by:

Just AMoment Loading GIF from Justamoment GIFs

Some local residents feel that all this has been going on long enough:

Grandma 84years GIF from Grandma GIFs

Even the wildlife are getting tired of it all:

Slothalida Sleep GIF from Slothalida GIFs

Rumours abound that equipment set aside for the Straitgate job, lies abandoned in various locations around the East Devon countryside:

Of course, in meetings with DCC, AI will be saying one thing:

Owen Wilson Progress GIF from Owenwilson GIFs

But behind the scenes, management must realise that things have not gone smoothly:

Robert Downey Jr Facepalm GIF from Robertdowneyjr GIFs

Here’s an image that perhaps best describes AI’s recent progress in real terms:

Austin Powers Mike Myers GIF from Austinpowers GIFs

The company has been bogged down by the cattle crossing issue, and the cars that would therefore have to queue on the busy Exeter Road. AI does however have a plan:

Cars Semi GIF from Cars GIFs

In the face of having to haul material from Straitgate a total of 2.5 million miles to be processed, AI has now come up with some new pollution controls:

Truck Smoke GIF from Truck GIFs

Readers will know that, over the years, the company has supplied a variety of fiction to support its application for Straitgate. AI's defence?

Everybody Lies House GIF from Everybodylies GIFs

We've even had Meghan Markle's old law firm look over parts of the application. Their conclusion?

Thisisbullshit Mrw GIF from Thisisbullshit GIFs

As a result, this blog will in future deploy a new tool:

Bullshit Detector Lies GIF from Bullshitdetector GIFs

Finally, this pictorial update would not be complete without an image of a cat – "that essential building block of the Internet" according to The New York Times. So, to sum up what many must be feeling about this whole thing by now:

Bored Cats GIF from Bored GIFs

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers!

The CO2 emissions that AI ‘forgot’ in 2016

The world has finally hammered out a climate agreement at the COP24 climate conference in Katowice. Greta Thunberg emerged as the unlikely star of the summit. She told negotiators:

You are not mature enough to tell it like it is

She's 15 years old. Watch her speech:

Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, was another speaker:

We are not prepared to die. We are not going to become the first victims of the climate crisis. Instead, we are going to do everything in our power to keep our heads above water.

But almost 10 years since I was last at these climate negotiations, I must say, nothing much seems to have changed. We are still using the same old, dinosaur language.

Carbon emissions are rising, rising and rising and all we seem to be doing is talking, talking and talking.

Cement industry leaders were also at the summit. As the BBC reported today in Climate change: The massive CO2 emitter you may not know about:

Cement is the source of about 8% of the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to think tank Chatham House... It contributes more CO2 than aviation fuel (2.5%)

Chatham House argues that... If the sector has any hope of meeting its commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, it will need to look at overhauling the cement-making process itself, not only reducing the use of fossil fuels.

In other news, Aggregate Industries has recently published its 2017 Sustainability Report.

It turns out – as we posted in If AI’s record is an example of corporate action on climate change, we’re all screwed – that AI under-reported its CO2 figures in its 2016 Sustainability Report. The company 'forgot' to report half of its CO2 emissions from cement production, which it has now belatedly included in the 2017 report:

For the first time we have reported the limestone calcination emissions produced in the manufacture of cement for both 2016 and 2017. These figures represent the emissions from the chemical transformation from limestone to clinker.

How many tonnes of CO2 did AI under-report in 2016? 

About one tonne of CO2 is emitted for every tonne of cement produced: around half a tonne from the energy required and half a tonne from the chemical process itself.

More precisely, the Mineral Products Association fact sheet on embodied CO2e of UK cement puts the average cement emissions at 849 kg CO2e/tonne for MPA Cement Member Companies (which includes Lafarge Cement UK – now part of AI), of which 50% to 60% is from the chemical process.

How much cement does AI produce? According to AI's own website, the company manufactures in excess of 1.4 million tonnes of cement annually:

Putting the more conservative numbers together (1.4 million tonnes x 849 kg CO2e/tonne x 50%) means AI neglected to report around 600,000 tonnes of CO2 in 2016. Indeed, AI has now revised its emissions figure for 2016 from 17.88 to 31.68 Kg CO2e/tonne which, across 44 million tonnes of production, also equates to around 600,000 tonnes. It's a sizeable number to overlook, given that it's more than twice the amount AI used to emit each year. Here's what 600,000 tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to:

Is AI still under reporting its emissions? 

AI’s latest sustainability report claims the company produced a total of around 44 million tonnes of material in 2017. Total emissions are stated as 28.76 kg CO2e/tonne, which equates to around 1.27 million tonnes of CO2 emitted last year. Of this, cement emissions would make up around 1.19 million tonnes of CO2 (1.4 million tonnes x 849 kg CO2e/tonne). Plainly the rest of the business (in excess of 42 million tonnes of production) is responsible for more than the 80k tonnes of CO2 difference (1.27 million - 1.19 million) – so either AI is suddenly producing considerably less than 1.4 million tonnes of cement, or something is awry.

What progress has AI achieved in 2017? In 2016, the company said "Energy and carbon reduction continues to be a challenge and are key areas of focus for us". Despite this key area of focus, AI’s "energy use remained very similar in 2017".

The company claims that "overall our carbon footprint has fallen by 9%", but recognises that this is:

... in part due to a reduction in the UK government’s conversion factor for grid supplied electricity and in part due to our increasing use of waste-derived fuels in our cement operations and switching to less CO2 intensive fuels in other operations.

In other words, AI can thank the investment by others in renewable low carbon energy sources that resulted in UK wind and solar power hitting record highs in 2017.

Whatever AI's narrative, it’s now clear that the company is a far larger emitter of CO2 than it once was. In 2007, the company reported:

In our first report in 2000, our reported emissions for 1999 were 228,267 tonnes of CO2. In 2007 this has increased to 450,390 tonnes ...

AI's now emitting nearly 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year, more than 5x the amount in 1999.

Does AI's latest sustainability report point to a company that recognises the climate emergency that humanity faces? Readers can decide for themselves. If it's any guide – the word "carbon" was referred to 52x in AI's 2008 Sustainability Report – and just 12x in 2017. But if the company's energy use is not falling – the graphics are certainly louder:

Of course, AI says "changed significantly" because it can't bring itself to tell it as it is, to say "gone up significantly". This is worrying, given that:

The first step in solving a problem is to recognise that it does exist.

What is also worrying is that after the terrible extreme weather events that have hit various parts of the world this year, and after the urgent warnings from the IPCC that "we all have to fundamentally change the way we live our lives", you might have hoped that this major emitter of CO2 would have done more than re-establish a baseline.

Because we've heard about establishing baselines before – in 2012, 2008, 2003 – and the company has consistently failed to achieve any progress against them. Let's look, for example, at how AI fared against its 2012 baseline:

2013: Absolute process carbon emissions have increased against the 2012 baseline

2014: Absolute carbon process emissions continue to rise and are now 13% higher than the baseline year

2015: Absolute process carbon emissions continue to rise and are 20% above the 2012 baseline

2016: No mention of baselines

AI has talked about reducing its CO2 emissions for more than 15 years, and has achieved exactly the reverse. It is plainly in denial: denial about having to do anything to change the way it operates, denial about having to do anything to reduce its contribution to an impending climate catastrophe.

Let's finish by moving from baselines and hollow promises from a corporate polluter, to instead picking out some of the wise words from Greta Thunberg:

You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake.

Our civilisation is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money.

You say you love your children above all else and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.

We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.

AI’s generosity knows no bounds

We’ve posted about Aggregate Industries' troubles at Westleigh Quarry - the problems with dust, the problems with HGVs, the impact on the village of Burlescombe.

Only last month, DCC’s DMC committee spent less than half an hour nodding through an extension giving AI another 600k tonnes at Westleigh – in the face of numerous concerns from local residents.

What do we get this month? A press release from AI crowing:

As part of its commitment to positively contributing to the communities around its sites, Aggregate Industries has gifted three information boards to the residents of Burlescombe...

Residents will be thrilled; a few hundred pounds on marketing boards in return for their all suffering.

But then it’s no more than we should expect from this subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, the Swiss-French cement multinational. Last year, AI – a company with sales in the region of £1,200,000,000 – donated just £37k to the communities it impacts, together with £12k of materials; in other words £0.00004 for every £1 of material sold.

To put that £37k in context, here's what the executives of LafargeHolcim paid themselves in 2017:

Eric Olsen was charged with funding terrorism in Syria.

AI loses another CEO

After posting just last week that Aggregate Industries’ newly filed accounts show pre-tax profits falling 56% for the year to 31 December 2017, it has now been announced that the company’s CEO François Petry is moving back to France:

Je suis très heureux de rejoindre les équipes de LafargeHolcim France et Belgique, qui sont connues pour leur grand professionnalisme. Google translate

Mr Petry’s replacement has yet to be announced, but as AI approaches the icebergs of Brexit, the company will need to rearrange the deck chairs again.

Again? During the time that AI has been trying to get its act together in East Devon – to gain permission to butcher a successful farm and risk water supplies for more than 100 people for the sake of a relatively small amount of sand and gravel that could only be processed off-site 23 miles away – the company has gone through three CEOs, and will now be looking for its fourth.

Is this simply an indication of how long the Straitgate Farm fiasco has been staggering on, or an indication of deeper problems?

EDIT 12.12.18 Guy Edwards appointed CEO of Aggregate Industries UK.

AI’s digital presence on climate change

Many consider it important to have a digital presence, and to appear in Google searches. Some pay good money to appear at the top of a Google search. The government, for example, is paying good money to promote Theresa May's Brexit deal on Google when people search "what is the Brexit deal?", but:

... the ad keeps being knocked off the top spot by a campaign group called "Britain's Future", which says May's deal betrays Brexit.

However, whilst Brexit is undoubtedly a cataclysmic mess, the real crisis of the 21st century is climate change and the existential threat it poses to humanity.

As far back as 2006, Aggregate Industries – a major emitter of greenhouse gases – was announcing in its sustainability report that "climate change... it’s happening and we have to take action now."

Since that time, you might have thought this company – with sales in excess of £1bn – would have left an extensive trail of digital footprints all over the internet, explaining its efforts to tackle climate change; you might have thought AI’s actions would, in one way or another, fill the first page of a Google search.

We asked Google: "what is "aggregate industries" doing about climate change?"

But what should we find? That this blog occupied half of the top entries on the first page of that search, with If AI’s record is an example of corporate action on climate change, we’re all screwed appropriately uppermost.

Construction headwinds

To be fair, it’s not just Aggregate Industries suffering. An indication of the headwinds now facing the construction industry can be found in comments accompanying a £264m emergency rights issue from Kier Group on Friday. The boss of Kier Group commented:

There has been a recent change in sentiment from the credit markets towards the UK construction sector, with various lenders indicating that they will be reducing their exposure to the sector. This has led to lower confidence among other stakeholders and an increased focus on balance sheet strength.

Kier Group has sales £4.2bn, employs more than 20,000, and saw its shares fall 22% on the news.

Controlling the fracking narrative

Readers will know by now that we’re not the biggest fans of fracking. It’s one of the most unpopular forms of development, surpassed only by quarrying.

Despite the UN's stark warning that we must increase our efforts fivefold to avoid a climate catastrophe, some companies have no qualms about profiting from this controversial fossil fuel source – including Aggregate Industries:

This week: Lancashire @UK_Nanas #fracking protests, @EHowardComposer & @takebacktheatre https://t.co/2GUgIQ7UmP pic.twitter.com/mBQ4pb1tte

— Big Issue North (@bigissuenorth) January 16, 2017

For those wanting to know more about fracking, the wikipedia page on Cuadrilla – the company behind 37 quakes in three weeks at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire, the company now seeking to move the seismic goalposts – was helpfully hacked this week:

Cuadrilla's wikipedia page has been reworked today, to tell the truth about the horrors perpetuated on the community of Preston New Road by Cuadrilla and CEO Francis Egan #BanFrackinghttps://t.co/pDFacKQoyU@ruthhayhurst @GeorgeMonbiot @mrmatthewtaylor @ExtinctionR @MrTopple

— Rewild & Rebel (@alanwilliamz) November 27, 2018

The author told The Canary:

I have control of Cuadrilla’s Wikipedia page. As made clear under Wikipedia’s Creative Commons licence, anyone who feels they can improve this Wiki page is welcome to update and improve it. I can provide citations/references for every statement that has been made. This update has been made with transparency in mind, so that investors in Cuadrilla and fracking can make their own minds up whether or not they want to pour away their money on this toxic industry.

It’s important we control the narrative and tell the truth.

Here’s a screenshot of that reworked page, before changes were later removed.

AI’s profits down 56% in 2017; Breedon’s profits up 52%

If the way Aggregate Industries has run its planning application for Straitgate Farm – spending years and goodness knows how much money going after an ever diminishing amount of sand and gravel some 23 miles away from where it would be processed – is any indication of how the wider company operates, is it any wonder that newly filed accounts from LafargeHolcim’s UK subsidiary show pre-tax profits falling 56% to £46.2m for the year to 31 December 2017, down from £105m in the previous 12 months?

Profits fall at Aggregate Industries despite turnover rise https://t.co/GYPJoYCIcM pic.twitter.com/GHaLuEQ2ec

— Insider (@insidereastmids) November 27, 2018

Today, LafargeHolcim’s CEO Jan Jenisch was wooing investors at AI’s Bardon Hill Quarry in Leicestershire on its Capital Markets Day.

LafargeHolcim senior management, accompanied by members of the financial community are touring Bardon Hill #quarry today. Discover more about this key @AggregateUK site: https://t.co/ToxCtuYKcC #CapitalMarketsDay2018 pic.twitter.com/eAKqhS18VT

— LafargeHolcim (@LafargeHolcim) November 28, 2018

Investors may need some convincing. In that same 12 month period that AI reported profits falling 56%, Breedon – a competitor run by Peter Tom, a former chairman and chief executive of AI – announced pre-tax profits increasing 52% to £71.2 million, up from £46.8 million in the previous 12 months. Breedon’s profits were achieved on sales of £652 million, AI’s profits were on sales of £1.2 billion. Both companies operate around 60 quarries each, but evidently, based on these results, Breedon is running the more efficient operation, with a pre-tax margin of almost 11%, compared with AI's of less than 4%.

At the time Breedon released its results, it said: "We look to 2018 and beyond with confidence and optimism." At the time AI released theirs, the company predicted that in 2018 "demand levels for our products and services will be, at best, flat." And not just that:

…the slowing economy and the uncertainty emanating from the decision to leave the European Union is expected to suppress investment in the short term.

In addition, it is anticipated that input costs, particularly oil related and energy will increase at levels well above inflation.

Clearly, AI has some problems on its hands, as it sails into the stormy seas caused by Brexit. It does however have a cunning plan:

… we have instigated a number of initiatives aimed at reducing the overall cost base of the business. These are focussed, principally, in the operational excellence, procurement, logistics and sales and general administration functions.

If logistics still includes their expensive 2.5 million mile haulage plans for East Devon, you do wonder what difference any of those initiatives will make.

AI’s idea of Corporate Social Responsibility

According to The Institute of Quarrying:

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to how a company may think about its relationship with the community, the environment and other causes beyond its own profitability and growth…

The sorts of CSR issues that (particularly large) companies seek to address will include things like: Engaging with stakeholders in the community…

We’ve posted about these sorts of things before: Community engagement is not about being nice; it’s the fourth pillar of CSR and Doesn't AI do hearts and minds any more?

Clearly, Aggregate Industries still has some hang-ups with CSR:

@AggregateUK How does blocking a community’s social media account assist in ‘working in partnership with communities to better understand the long term #economic, #environmental and social implications of our activities’? @beisgovuk pic.twitter.com/lzFqcVr0Av

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) November 28, 2018

Drakelands’ rescue – talks seek to reduce restoration bond

In October, we posted about the troubles of Wolf Minerals, how Drakelands Mine owner ceases trading and appoints administrators and asking Who would take on Drakelands?

Readers may remember that this was the mine that caused local residents to endure the "horrendous invasive unacceptable" impact of blasting and low frequency noise; we posted about this in What happened last time DCC approved a major minerals application?

Over £100 million has been poured into this failing venture. Question marks now hang over the future of the site, and its restoration. The Telegraph reports that a Swiss-based investment fund has shown interest in taking on the mine, but that:

… talks have hit a snag over the cost of restoring the land after its working life has finished… it is thought a trio of banks that are among Wolf’s secured creditors are wrangling over the size of a bond being held in account to pay for restoration of the site after mining has finished… Around £14m has been deposited for safekeeping but it is thought the banks - Unicredit, ING and Caterpillar - want this reduced to £11.5m.

In 2016, DCC had stated:

6.135 There is already in existence a restoration bond with Wolf Minerals which was required as a part of the original legal agreement associated with the 1986 planning permission…. The value of the bond was calculated by the Mineral Valuer in 2014 to be in the region of £15 million… the operator has already posted the full amount into an Escrow Account to ensure that the finance remains available for this purpose.

The Telegraph quotes Gary Streeter, MP for the area, as saying:

It’s very important to that local economy that this mine continues. We want to get the tungsten out, get the value from it, and put the countryside back together… I’m not in favour of reducing the bond but if it has to be reduced slightly to make this project work, then we’ll have to accept that - but that’s be to negotiated.

Not everyone will be happy that putting the Devon countryside back together – facilitated by a restoration bond lodged for safekeeping in an escrow account – is now up for negotiation, in order to appease various global banking interests.

AI asks ‘could green concrete be the answer’?

Barry Mellor of @aggregateUK discusses how greener #construction materials are key to #sustainability & explores how #BREEAM has driven demand for greener concrete solutions @buildingnews https://t.co/FGnTN2btXs

— BREEAM Official (@BRE_BREEAM) November 27, 2018

Amid a growing public consciousness around the importance of sustainability, it is becoming increasingly critical for the construction industry to go beyond compliance and adapt its business approach to incorporate a more environmentally friendly stance.

Not to be overlooked, concrete specification can have a major role to play in this; helping to not only vastly reduce the requirement for quarried material, but also the overall associated carbon footprint.

Balancing the need for economic growth with sustainability remains one of the most pressing challenges facing the modern construction world…

For instance, recent years have seen the growing use of concrete made from secondary aggregate - materials which would otherwise become landfill – which in accordance with BREEAM specifications means it can be counted towards the recycled aggregate content of a build project.

Using secondary aggregates in the concrete mix also replaces the need for quarried natural aggregate and in doing so can reduce CO2 emissions in buildings by up to 10%, as by being up to 50% lighter than natural aggregate, it means fewer truck journeys are needed to transport construction materials – resulting in significant cost savings for the build.

Amid recent reports showing that almost two-thirds of businesses operating in the UK construction sector are now more committed than ever before on taking action on sustainability, the direction of travel for the industry is clear - reducing carbon emissions needs to be at the heart of everything we do.

This is, of course, from the same company planning a 2.5 MILLION MILE climate-busting haulage scheme across Devon.

‘AI warns public not to wander onto access road following a number of incidents’

Aggregate Industries wants to turn a quiet rural lane in East Devon – a lane used by the public for dog-walking, jogging, horse riding, etc, and by school children waiting for and being dropped-off by buses – into a site access road for up to 200 HGV movements a day. What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty, according to AI. The company already has problems with an access road elsewhere:

Aggregate Industries is raising concerns about members of the public putting themselves in danger from oncoming traffic while walking on roads used to transport quarry materials.

Matthew Sharpe, Quarry Operations Manager at Aggregate Industries, comments: "We take the issue of public safety incredibly seriously and would like to warn visitors of the dangers of wandering off the designated footpaths on to high-traffic access roads following a number of incidents in recent years which have raised concerns."

We have advanced safer alternative plans that would avoid members of the public – including children – having to walk on roads used to transport quarry materials. To date, these plans have fallen on deaf ears – undermining those public safety claims from AI.

Here's the photo MP Sir Hugo Swire tweeted after his recent meeting with AI and its highways consultant where these access arrangements were discussed. Hugo Swire had previously written that "road safety and the transport of children is causing me real concern". We can only imagine what the representative from AI is telling our MP:

the school children would be... er... right there... er... umm yes, that is where our 44-tonne artics would umm enter and umm exit the site... but... er... we do take the issue of public safety incredibly seriously... incidents on access roads elsewhere?... er... er... er... well, now you come to mention it, we have had a spot of bother in Cambridge... umm... but we do take the issue of public safety incredibly seriously...

Bid to create world’s first ultra-low emission quarry

None of this post will interest Aggregate Industries.

You only have to take a look at AI’s record on CO2 emissions and its multi-million mile haulage plans for Straitgate Farm to see how much interest AI has in tackling climate change.

Almost every day another climate-related disaster seems to hit the headlines. After the devastating California wildfires: Rain now brings threat of mudslides.

Yesterday, the the World Meteorological Organization reported that carbon dioxide levels reached 405 parts per million (ppm) in 2017:

"The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than now" said WMO secretary general, Petteri Taalas.

"The science is clear. Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth. The window of opportunity for action is almost closed."

"Every fraction of a degree of global warming matters, and so does every part per million of greenhouse gases," said WMO deputy secretary general, Elena Manaenkova. "CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer."

The Earth has been warmer than average for 406 months in a row: "This means no one under the age of 32 has ever experienced a cooler-than-average month on this planet" https://t.co/XrEOKn4VxR #GlobalWarming #ClimateCrisis

— Carbon Tracker (@CarbonBubble) November 21, 2018

As we posted in IPCC: "The next few years are probably the most important in our history":

"No-one can opt out anymore," said Dr Debra Roberts, who's a co-chair of the IPCC. "We all have to fundamentally change the way we live our lives; we can't remain remote from the problem anymore."

But if AI is not taking this existential threat to humanity seriously, some companies are.

In Sweden, Volvo and Skanska have been running the 'Electric Site' research project, testing a range of hybrid and electric equipment in a bid to create the world's first ultra-low emission quarry:

For decades, Vikan Kross quarry just outside Gothenburg has been excavated for granite and aggregates, producing around 1.25 million tonnes of material each year for use in the construction, asphalt, and cement industries. And, just like any other mining site around the world, a raft of diesel-guzzling heavy machinery has traditionally been used to carry out the hefty, load-bearing work.

The site is Skanska's oldest and largest quarry in Sweden, but for the past 10 weeks or so, the construction and engineering giant has been piloting new electric and autonomous machinery at the site - including excavators, crushers and load carriers - in the hope a new wave of clean technologies can cut costs, emissions and air pollution. The plan is to turn Vikran Kross into the world's first emissions-free quarry...

Research had suggested the project would be able to reduce CO2 emissions from the quarry by 95 per cent... "Based on the measurements we have seen so far, we believe we could even go up to a 98 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions"

Even if it's just a research project at this stage, that's remarkable stuff, even more so when you consider that a "70% reduction in energy cost and a 40% reduction in operator cost" was also achieved.

In comparison, and after announcing in 2006 that "climate change... it’s happening and we have to take action now", what has AI achieved over the last few years to help us avoid a climate catastrophe?

2011: We set a target in 2008 to reduce our total carbon emissions on a per tonne basis by 20% with 2008 as a baseline… In 2009 this stayed relatively flat but since then has steadily increased...

2012: Controlling and reducing carbon emissions is central to a responsible environmental policy. At Aggregate Industries we have understood the impacts of our carbon emissions for some time... Worryingly, carbon emissions associated with logistics within our business have been working against trend, rising steadily for the last four years on a per tonne basis... By 2016 we will reduce process carbon emissions by 20% on 2012 levels in absolute terms.

2015: Absolute process carbon emissions continue to rise and are 20% above the 2012 baseline.

As we said, If AI’s record is an example of corporate action on climate change, we’re all screwed.

AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 6th time

Last month we posted that AI’s application will now stagger into its 5th year – 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019..., how: 

... there’s little evidence that anything has progressed during this latest extension period. According to Cllr John Hart, in his letter to MP Sir Hugo Swire of 21 September 2018, DCC is still awaiting information on hydrogeology, flooding, working practices, ecology and a range of transport matters, including "the cattle crossing issue." Readers may remember that we first posted about Bovine movements in April 2017, having previously raised the problem in our response of 30 March 2017. This link gives the story to date. We warned of More delays to come, but AI has already had a staggering 18 months to resolve this matter. How much more time will it need?

Indeed. How much more time will it need? Another month? Another year? Another 5 years? Who knows how many more extensions Aggregate Industries will need to get its act together? In the meantime, the 6th extension to the determination date for the current application has been agreed between AI and DCC – this time to 31st March 2019. 

Readers will remember that AI's previous application for Straitgate Farm was lodged in 2015. That was dogged by delays too, before being withdrawn. Exactly how many years are DCC going to entertain all this? At what point is someone going to say 'enough is enough'?

What Twitterstorm did we unleash on AI to provoke our blocking?

Last week we posted: "Fancy that! After all these years, our friends at Aggregate Industries blocked us on Twitter this week."

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.

Some might regard such action from this aggregates giant as churlish – blocking a group that was doing no more than raising genuine concerns from a local community at risk of being impacted by intrusive quarry plans. AI claims:

Our people and the communities in which we operate are important to us.

But we’ve been following things for long enough now to know how hollow that statement is. If communities were important to AI, it would want to keep all social media channels open – not only to hear concerns, but to do something about them.

But "All is fair in love and war" as they say. Twitter is the corporate weapon of choice to push rhetoric and spin. No self-respecting cement conglomerate could have a poxy action group sullying its propaganda. Something we said must have hit home.

Here are a few more of those 13 nasty tweets we sent to @AggregateUK in 2018:

Pray tell, @AggregateUK @LafargeHolcim, how does your 4 MILLION KM scheme proposed in #Devon – to haul as-dug material a #climate-busting 75 KM round-trip for processing – assist Mr Pétry’s 'strong innovation agenda to reduce #CO2 & #transportation'? https://t.co/TlggLZ5x5H pic.twitter.com/aOe3NcKuJk

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) May 14, 2018

About time too @AggregateUK - after first starting extraction in the 1960s

How about visiting @CadhayHouse - #listed #medieval #fishponds threatened by your next quarry plans in #EastDevon https://t.co/EFAGTSKxHN@DevonGardens @thegardenstrust pic.twitter.com/VcwEJwmiIe

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) May 2, 2018

If “#sustainability is at the heart of * everything * we do” @AggregateUK, why are you planning a 2.5 million mile #climate busting haulage scheme across Devon? #ActOnClimate don’t just talk about it. @_donnahunthttps://t.co/lQDqAfw6jH pic.twitter.com/DfjlAmaRjd

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) April 27, 2018

Remember GCNs and why AI couldn’t use Rockbeare to process Straitgate material?

For many years, Rockbeare had been earmarked, both by Devon County Council and Aggregate Industries, to process material from Straitgate Farm. As far back as 2003, in a last ditch attempt to keep Straitgate in the previous Devon Minerals Plan, AI had said:

It is this Company’s view that there is an inextricable link between Straitgate Farm and the Rockbeare Minerals Working Area... It is the Company’s intention to transfer plant to Rockbeare as soon as working is completed at Blackhill... Working the reserve at Straitgate Farm initially and possibly wholly through our existing mineral site at Rockbeare we believe is both efficient and has environmental benefits.

Straitgate Farm was put in the current Minerals Plan on the basis of the availability of a nearby site for processing the sand and gravel. At that Plan’s Examination Hearings in 2016, AI hoodwinked the Inspector, telling him it "wouldn’t wish to rule out" Rockbeare. But a month later, Waycon Precast Ltd submitted a planning application for Rockbeare – leasing the site from AI for a new precast concrete manufacturing plant. The application had obviously been in the pipeline for some time.

Therefore, when AI, in the same year, lost the argument over continued processing at Blackhill, the only remaining site available to house the relocated processing plant was at Hillhead near Uffculme. This now means that if Straitgate ever got the go-ahead, every load of as-dug material, which would include 20% waste, would require a round trip of 46 miles for processing; every finished load would have effectively travelled 58 miles before any onward delivery. Utterly ridiculous and utterly unsustainable.

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust

And GCNs? When AI was previously trying to argue why it shouldn't use Rockbeare – why it should continue processing at Blackhill, a factory with hundreds of HGV movements in the middle of an AONB and conservation area of European importance – the company suddenly went looking for, and had the good fortune of finding, some great crested newts. We posted about it in You couldn’t make this up!

It has been demonstrated that processing at Rockbeare is not physically possible due to... the presence of great crested newts in existing ponds.

It was remarkable really, because AI wouldn’t look for newts properly to support its application to quarry Straitgate – and still hasn’t – but didn’t hesitate to look for them at Rockbeare, which at the time wasn’t the subject of a planning application.

And it was a similar story at Blackhill, where GCNs couldn't be found when the site's planning application was being discussed, but could suddenly be found when that wasn’t on the table anymore, but biodiversity prizes were.

Of course, the presence of newts at Rockbeare did not have to block the site being used for mineral processing. Natural England told AI that the issue could be "addressed through European Protected Species licencing", in the same way the dormice – another protected species – would be at Straitgate, in the same way that Midland Quarry Products has just been granted a licence to translocate great crested newts at its quarry in Shropshire.

But once GCNs had been found at Rockbeare, and when you see that AI was recently forced to spend £425,000 to relocate reptiles from its Isle of Grain terminal site in Kent, you know what Rockbeare was all about. It was about money; the economic benefits that would fall to AI – leasing the site to a third party and avoiding the costs of moving GCNs. It was about what was right for AI, not what was right for Devon. It was about the profit that would accrue to LafargeHolcim’s bank balance in Switzerland, so that Devon could benefit from the diesel pollution of HGVs labouring back and forth on a 2.5 million mile haulage scheme, and the world’s broken climate could benefit from thousands of tonnes of CO2. Thank you Aggregate Industries. It’s good to know how much you care.

AI’s Westleigh application to be decided next week

Aggregate Industries' Westleigh Quarry near Burlescombe is currently the subject of planning application DCC/4007/2017 to vary the approved working scheme to extract an additional 600,000 tonnes. The application will come before DCC’s DMC committee next week.

We have made various posts concerning Westleigh this year, including how AI has been failing to control dust emissions.

Readers will see how DCC has addressed such issues in the officer's report that recommends approval of this application.

Objections to the application related to:

4.3 Of the objections, the principal areas of concern were: impact of HGV movements through Burlescombe, especially at during school drop off times; safety of the school children; the condition of the road due to HGV movements; speed, queuing and convoys of HGVs; emissions from HGVs impacting health; structural damage to listed bridges; volume of traffic increasing; structural damage to buildings due to blasting; amenity impact of vibration from blasting; increase in dust; protection of the amenity of houses adjacent to the application site; the quarry currently operating outside permitted hours; loss of existing landscape planting; value of the biodiversity in the area proposed for extraction; issues with the existing water diversion scheme; adequate existing reserves in other areas of the quarry; suitability of the proposed action plans and monitoring regimes for vibration, dust and noise; time required for replacement planting to mature; out of date information supplied; existing issues unresolved with regard to noise and blasting, spillages on the highway, movements of HGVs during day and night, and pre-emptive vegetation clearance work.

On the issue of dust:

6.43 It is acknowledged that there have been a number of dust complaints over the last seven months, which resulted in an investigation that required further dust assessments and consultation with Public Health England regarding the monitoring results. Meetings were held with the quarry operator and revised dust suppression measures were implemented which improved matters. The latest results from dust monitoring from May 2018 have yet to be released, although anecdotal information has been supplied which suggested that the situation had greatly improved.

6.44 It is considered that the existing control measures are ensuring that any residual impact is adequately mitigated. However, the existing monitoring scheme has been reviewed, amended and incorporated into a more comprehensive environmental scheme. This latter scheme also includes measures to identify, control and mitigate the effects of noise and blasting. The current planning consent did not require monitoring schemes for either of these impacts and therefore the approval of this current application would provide betterment in this regard. Further to this, given that future operations at Rocknell will not extend any closer to the present nearest privately-owned residential properties it is concluded the impacts of dust, groundborne vibration and air overpressure can be suitably controlled to within the limits specified by the attached scheme.

6.45 Aside from the complaints, it must be acknowledged that the approving this application is likely to increase controls in terms of dust and vibration. Given the above although dust is an ongoing concern, it would be unreasonable to refuse the application on based potential dust impacts associated with this application.

AI fights back

Fancy that! After all these years, our friends at Aggregate Industries blocked us on Twitter this week.

Readers may have noticed that we do use Twitter from time to time. We followed AI back in 2013. On odd occasions since then we’ve been minded to reply to one or two of their tweets; it would be rude not to.

What are we to think? Only recently, AI took to hiding Straitgate’s groundwater levels from us, "in-line with company policy". Now, blocking our Twitter account stops us contacting @AggregateUK and seeing their tweets (although it’s easy to get around the latter). But should we take this as progress? Or has AI just had a hissy fit? Or might it have been something we said? But, why now? The last time we replied to any of AI’s tweets was last month – on climate change:

Brilliant... but hasn’t @AggregateUK made such pledges before?

2006 “climate change… it’s happening and we have to take action now”
2012 “By 2016 we will reduce process carbon emissions by 20%”
etc etc

And look at your record:https://t.co/TQFVnROG1f#GreenGB #ClimateBreakdown pic.twitter.com/BbHVerrKvn

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) October 18, 2018

If @AggregateUK you’re ‘committed to tackling #climatechange’, why are you still pursuing an unnecessary #CO2 polluting 2.5 million-mile HGV haulage scheme across Devon?

And why does your record on #climateaction and #CO2 look like this? https://t.co/TQFVnRx4CF#greenwashing pic.twitter.com/QblXg1Eotc

— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) October 16, 2018

Readers can decide for themselves why a corporation with sales in excess of £1 billion pa might take offence to a few tweets from a local action group in East Devon.

Whatever the reason, it's a pity that AI isn't grown up enough to accept the occasional dissenting voice. But that's ok. Many regard blocking on social media as an act of self-preservation. And AI is obviously sensitive to these sorts of things.

But a word of advice for @AggregateUK social media gurus: you can tweet bullshit but you can’t hide it; neither can you stop it from being embedded on this blog.

And by the way, for those following that epic fail at Silverstone, the fallout for AI is still ongoing. Shame.

Rabat is a hero for riding again, just over two months since those ridiculous Silverstone track conditions gave him a triple compound femur fracture. Imagine that: breaking a femur into 4 pieces! Someone should be feeling very ashamed for causing him such an injury

— Mat Oxley (@matoxley) November 8, 2018

@matoxley do you know if @AggregateUK also lays runways 😎 https://t.co/YpdP1Tej3I

— Rusty (@topcoalpha) November 16, 2018