Not long ago we posted that if Aggregate Industries’ resource at Straitgate Farm was equivalent to cows, it would be left with just 2 - having started with 33. Thank goodness AI leaves the farming to others.
Back in 2015 we wrote Straitgate has already been a disaster for AI. Now, AI is left with just 6% of the figure first estimated in the 1960s, and plans to extract sand and gravel from just 6 fields - but still decimating a successful dairy farm in the process.
Let's see what that shrinkage looks like in visual terms. This was the plan in 1967:
This is how the plans have changed over recent years:
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And this is where we stand in 2018:
So, what is AI’s bottom line? Because it surely can’t be profit. Even if AI won planning permission - after extensive application costs - it would still have to stump up further big slugs of money:
Extensive Roman and Iron Age archaeological investigations;
Birdcage Lane 'improvements', including a bus stop for children waiting for school transport, and pedestrian provision;
Birdcage Lane 'improvements', including a bus stop for children waiting for school transport, and pedestrian provision;
Fit-for-purpose farm tracks and gates across the site around quarry workings;
Further tree planting;
Moving power lines across the site;
Cost of a 46 mile round trip for each load of as-dug material;
Provisions for mishaps / loss of water supplies to 100 people and businesses / under-recovery or over-estimation of material etc.
And all this over and above the standard outgoings for site access, tarmac haul road, wheel wash, bunding, soil mounds, restoration earth works etc.
Anyone would think AI was prospecting for gold, not sand and gravel. Or is it only concerned with what it could sell the site for afterwards? An industrial estate perhaps - if Blackhill (below) is anything to go by?
