You don’t have to go far to see the impact of Aggregate Industries’ quarries on local communities.
Our people and the communities in which we operate are important to us. We are committed to being a responsible partner, effectively contributing to improving the quality of life of the members of our workforce, their families and the communities around our operations.
But judging by a long list of objections to a planning application from AI last year, some residents living around Westleigh Quarry near Burlescombe would beg to differ.
They do not paint a picture of AI’s operations "improving the quality of life". Far from it.
Objections to application DCC/4007/2017 to vary the working scheme at Westleigh Quarry tell a story of dust inside and outside homes, of noise, of blasting vibration, of HGV problems on unsuitable roads, of damage to roads going un-repaired, of rules continuously being broken, of a complaints system that doesn't work, even of a "Section 106 condition from the 1997 Application [that] remains unfulfilled".
[This last point obviously won't instil any confidence for those 100 or so people around Straitgate hoping that a S106 agreement would take care of any problems that AI and its excavators might cause to their drinking water supplies.]
AI says that the "communities in which we operate are important to us"; one respondent to the Westleigh application claimed AI treats local residents "with utter contempt".
It was a similar story in Uffculme in 2013 for AI’s retrospective bagging plant planning application:
Arrogance of Company; no local consultation; contempt for local community...
It’s not just in Devon either. Here are two posts we made in 2014 and in 2013 about AI’s community relations in Staffordshire:
The reality is that Aggregate is sticking up two fingers to the wishes of the people of Uttoxeter.
In 2014 we posted how Community engagement is not about being nice; it’s the fourth pillar of CSR, about how:
... it is about companies being part of, not apart from, society.
Of course, Westleigh is on a different scale to any operation that would be permitted at Straitgate Farm: It is a hard rock quarry; extraction involves blasting; processing plant is on site; output is 800-900k tonnes pa – roughly one Straitgate a year. It already has planning consent until 2046; but that’s not enough for AI – the 2017 application is looking to extract an additional 600k tonnes over a 9-month period.
But issues with AI’s Westleigh Quarry go further back.
Whilst AI’s application of 2017 made a point of saying that "mineral extraction has occurred at Westleigh Quarry since at least the early 1800s", it made no mention of the Westleigh Quarry Community Survey that was performed – following a long history of complaints – in 2014.
This was an independent survey, jointly funded by the Parish Council, DCC and AI, that produced a long list of measures that, in the community’s view, would improve matters.
DCC is now holding a consultation – Responding to community concerns – Westleigh Quarry – seeking views on two of the measures put forward. Anyone with an interest has until 7 June to respond.
