Merry Christmas

Christmas is almost upon us and another year has passed in the Straitgate affair.

This pantomime has been running since 1965, and, as we posted, Aggregate Industries' planning application will now enter another decade.

Over the last two years, one of the subjects that has challenged Aggregate Industries and Devon County Council has been the 🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🚶and how they would need to regularly cross the B3174 Exeter Road to replacement grazing as a direct result of the company's proposal to quarry their pasture. If we were to frame the problem in Christmas cracker terms:

Why did the cows cross the road? Where else could they go?

It's not a joke, but because it’s nearly Christmas, by unpopular demand here are some that are. Don’t blame us, blame the internet.

Why did the cow cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why did the sheep cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

Why did the farmer cross the road? To get his animals back.

Two cows were talking in a field. The first cow said to the other, "Have you heard about the Mad Cow disease going around?" The second cow replies, "Yeah, makes you glad you’re a penguin, doesn’t it?"

Two cows were talking in a field. The first said "moo" and the second said "baaaa." The first cow asked the second cow, "why did you say baaaa?" The second cow said, "I’m learning a foreign language."

Why canʼt you tell a cow a joke? They already herd it.

What do you call a cow with a sense of humour? A cowmedian.

What do you call a cow after she has given birth? Decaffeinated.

What has four legs and goes "Oom, Oom"? A cow walking backwards.

Why do dairy farmers get along with their cows so well? They work well with udders.

I asked a farmer if it’s easy to milk a cow. He said, "Sure. Any jerk can do it."

This guy keeps making cow jokes... how dairy!?!

Anyway, this subject's been milked dry, so – Merry Christmas and a Happy Moo Year to all readers!

PS. If Aggregate Industries and Devon County Council have had nightmares over the cows – this video of surreal bovine choreography is unlikely to help. Someone suggested this is what cows do when no one's looking, and perhaps they're right. It’s had 55 million views. Enjoy.

A quiz

Here's a little quiz – based on a subject we’ve touched upon before: You have two cows. Cows have been important throughout the ages. Who might have come up with these lines?

Thou hast two cowes, blisful matir for to seke, Thy cowes art but a milde wight and meke.

A cow, a cow, my kingdom for a cow!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of two cows must be in want of a wife.

You have two cows. That's a maximum combined energy output of 1.062*10²⁰J.

You have two cows. You shall milk them on the beaches, you shall milk them on the landing grounds, you shall milk them in the fields and in the streets, you shall milk them in the hills...

You have two cows. One of them is descended from Turgon, son of Fingolfin, son of Finwë, and dwelt in the hidden city of Gondolin, that in Quenya is called Ondolindë, which is The Rock of the Music of the Water. The other is the daughter of... (continue for 300 pages)

You have two cows. Not a lot of people know that.

A large black monolith appears and then you have two cows.

Listen, don't mention the cows. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

You have two cows. Huge, inflatable cows floating above London.

You have two cows, but they were born to run, so you set them free.

U have 2 cows. It's alright, they moo in mysterious ways

"What are those things, Spock?" "They're cows, Jim, but not as we know it."

This show was brought to you by the letters C, O, W, and S, and by the number 2.

You have 42 cows.

You have two cows. Your sole object in life is to find suitable bulls.

You have two cows. One of them is a mole.

Your two cows are the milkmen. Moo moo ga moob!

This is Ground Control to Major Cow, you've really made the grade. And the papers want to know whose grass you eat.

You're just some bovine that I used to know.

You have two cows. One of them used to produce ordinary milk, but then it got cancer and started to produce illegal crystal milk. The other says "bitch!" a lot. You win a gazillion awards for your cows. 

You have a printing press that creates cows. You print tons of cows for everyone, then wonder why there are no pastures left.

You have five cows, named Alpha through Epsilon. They give you an excuse to rail against modernity.

You have two cows. You feel guilty, but you have no clue why.

You have two cows. Being female, they suffer.

You have two cows. I won’t tell you how many I have. I would rather hide in a fridge.

You have two cows. I can’t tell you how many I have. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

Most of the answers can be found here.

AI’s application to quarry Straitgate Farm – determination date delayed for 9th time

In October, we posted AI’s planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm will now enter a new decade. Devon County Council and Aggregate Industries have this week agreed a further extension for determining the application to quarry Straitgate, "from 31st December 2019 to 31st March 2020".

Aggregate Industries launched its application to quarry Straitgate Farm back in 2015.

In June, we posted Straitgate determination date extended for 8th time, and listed some of the issues the company could be struggling with. We won’t go through these again. None appear resolved.

Speeds of 80MPH + recorded on B3174 Exeter Road – and still no safety assessment

Aggregate Industries’ Transport Assessment to support its plan to quarry Straitgate is worth scrutinising. It contains data about the B3174 Exeter Road that the company would no doubt rather not publicise.

We’ve already posted about how Aggregate Industries’ consultants have been economical on reporting road accidents, but the Transport Assessment is also economical on the subject of speed.

Locals warn of how fast vehicles travel on the B3174 Exeter Road. Not only locals. Devon County Council’s Head of Planning, in an email in 2017 released after a Freedom of Information request, recognises that this is "such a fast straight road."

But, according to Aggregate Industries' traffic consultant Horizon, this is not so. In February 2018, in an email to reassure the Council's highways department about the cattle crossing, Horizon wrote:

The suggestion within the safety audit that speeds could be in excess of the national speed limit (60 mph) is therefore incorrect, although it should be noted that the audit teams comments were based on data that was older and located to the east of the site.

Subsequent to that, Horizon commissioned a new traffic count – after the previous one was found to be fiction. What were its conclusions? The Transport Assessment says:

1.1.7 The 85th percentile vehicle speeds were below the signed national speed limit with those recorded during the working week lower than those recorded at the weekend.

and that furthermore:

4.3.8 A full standard visibility splay of 215 m can be achieved at the junction of Birdcage Lane with the B3174 Exeter Road. This is appropriate for a 60 mph road, although the highest 85th percentile vehicle speed recorded during the seven day survey was 58.2 mph eastbound and 57.1 mph westbound. It is noted that both the highest percentile speeds were recorded on a Sunday, the weekday 85th percentile speeds ranged from 56.0 to 56.8 eastbound and 54.7 to 55.5 westbound representing a lower vehicle speed during the operational periods of the proposed quarry.

So, no indication of problems there. But this doesn’t tell the whole story. The 85th percentile speed tells us about the speed that 85% of drivers drive at or below. What about the rest? If you analyse the traffic count data over the 5 day working week, in Appendix C, you will find that:

1933 vehicles were travelling faster than 60mph.

275 of those vehicles were travelling at 70mph or more.

85 of those vehicles were travelling at 80mph or more.

Local people may not be surprised by these numbers, but it does rather undo those assurances in that email from Mr trust-me-I'm-a-traffic-consultant. Remember too:

• Aggregate Industries' plan to quarry Straitgate would put up to 53% more trucks on this road;
• the B3174 Exeter Road is as little as 5.3m wide, according to Horizon;
• as a direct result of Aggregate Industries' proposal, cows would need to cross the B3174 Exeter Road for replacement pasture on the south side of the road;
• vehicles would need to stop for the cows, as we've posted, just beyond the brow of this hill;

• there has been no assessment of the traffic queue lengths that would result.

We posted about the cows in Bovine movements revisited – more than 2 years on. But what are the safety implications? Well, we might not know – at least not before this application is determined.

The FOI shows that at the request of the Highways team, Devon County Council formally asked Aggregate Industries for the provision of a Stage 2 Road Safety Audit. The same FOI also shows the company, in the words of the Council, "pushing back" on performing such an audit before determination.

Why, if Devon County Council requested it, has no Stage 2 Road Safety Audit been performed? What has Aggregate Industries to hide? The safety aspects of this proposal obviously need to be properly assessed. Not only to know if the operation is workable, but so that all concerned can make an informed decision – with ALL the facts – when the application is finally determined. Currently, no such assessment has been made. According to this document:

Rural roads account for 68% of all road deaths, and 82% of car occupant deaths in particular, but only around 42% of the distance travelled. Of all road deaths in Britain in 2010, 49% occurred on National Speed Limit rural single carriageway roads (DfT, 2010).

Consultants Vectos have already warned:

The provision of a Cattle crossing over the B3174 may have severe impact on the operation of the B3174, which in the absence of assessment is not known.

Quarry workers five times more likely to die from COPD

If quarry companies controlled dust emissions – for workers and others living around their sites – articles like this would not keep appearing:

HSENI News Release: Quarry workers five times more likely to die from COPD. Read more at https://t.co/R7TISK7Z37 pic.twitter.com/CqckxXtu1N

— HSENI (@Hsenigov) December 10, 2019

The health impact of dust from quarries has been known about for decades, and what's been done? According to a HSENI inspector:

Industry has been working on the preparation of a strategy to deal with dust and limit the exposure to the workforce. It is now time to have these strategies fully implemented.

AI’s TA fails to assess impact of cows on queueing traffic

Aggregate Industries’ Transport Assessment is at Revision E. It’s been played about with since it was written in July 2018 – bits added, bits taken away. It is the third TA from Aggregate Industries for the company's proposal to quarry Straitgate Farm. As we posted in Transport Assessments & HGVs: How consultants create an alternative reality, these documents are supposed to be "thorough assessments of the transport implications of development."

One of the transport implications of this development is that the tenant dairy farmer would have to take cows across the B3174 Exeter Road to seek replacement pasture, should Aggregate Industries take land away for quarrying and soil storage. We recently posted about the cows in Bovine movements revisited – more than 2 years on.

Aggregate Industries has provided this helpful map to show where the cows would cross:

You might have thought therefore – given that Aggregate Industries has spent more than two years dealing with the issue – that its consultants would have actually assessed the transport implications of this development, and particularly what traffic queues might result from cattle crossing this road.

Aggregate Industries' Transport Assessment recognises that:

3.2.5 It is noted that when the herd is moved it is done so in batches that restrict the traffic delay period to 15 minutes. Therefore on average the delay to a vehicle using the B3174 as a result of herd movement is between 10 – 15 minutes at any one time.

But Aggregate Industries hasn’t wanted to feed the number of vehicles using this road into the mix. It hasn’t wanted to answer a number of very important questions: What number of vehicles would typically be held up by 150 cows crossing at milking times? What traffic queue lengths could result? Would the road system still function safely, for example if vehicles backed up onto the Daisymount roundabout? Would this have any impact on the A30?

Vectos, the traffic consultants instructed by a third party, warned:

The provision of a Cattle crossing over the B3174 may have severe impact on the operation of the B3174, which in the absence of assessment is not known.

In the absence of such an assessment, we previously used numbers from a Highways England traffic count commissioned in November 2015 to show that queues of over 100 vehicles from the cattle crossing make AI’s plans unworkable:

During the 15 minutes crossing times, over 100 vehicles can be travelling on the B3174 Exeter Road, in one direction or the other. If we assume an average queuing vehicle length of 7.5m, including gaps, this means that traffic queues could stretch to the A30 Daisymount Junction and half way to Ottery.

This does NOT take into account the HGVs – up to 216 movements a day – that would be generated by Aggregate Industries' plans to quarry Straitgate Farm.

This does NOT take into account the extra development in Ottery St Mary since 2015. This does NOT take into account the plans for the Tipton St John school relocation and the additional 150 houses needed to pay for it. This does NOT take into account the extra traffic generated by the "Massive new service station and drive-thru McDonalds" planned for the A30 Daisymount junction. So, let's therefore call it a best case scenario.

Why hasn’t this assessment been done by Aggregate Industries? Why hasn’t Devon County Council called for it – in the more than 2 years of to-ing and fro-ing? Was there a worry of what it might reveal?

Or was the Council labouring under the illusion that the statement 1.1.8 in Aggregate Industries' TA – "there will not be a need to intensify livestock crossings over the B3174 Exeter Road above that already stated as the baseline" – could, in some post truth world, be relied upon?

Has the Council forgotten that 56 acres of pasture would be removed in Phase 1 alone – 40% of the land available on the northern side of the B3174, where the milking parlour is located? Does the Council not realise that few dairy farmers could cope with losing such a portion of productive land and still remain viable? According to the Supporting Statement, Phase 1 would not be restored until Phase 3:

3.4.10 Soils and overburden from [Phase 3] would be direct placed back into phases 1 and 2 to complete restoration in these areas.

And that’s only Phase 1. In total, 105 acres of pasture is proposed for quarrying and soil storage:

The application site covers an area extending to some 42.5ha, with mineral extraction proposed to take place within 22.6ha with the remainder of the site occupied by temporary soil storage bunds, mitigation planting and site management and access areas. 2.1.10

Given such a situation, what farmer would not be forced to intensify livestock crossings to access replacement land – even if it were across a road – rather than twiddle their thumbs and watch their business go down the pan?

‘UK aggregates recycling on the rise’

According to AggNet, the market for recycled aggregates continues to strengthen:

Latest industry findings from BDS Marketing Research, the leading consultancy for the heavy buildings materials sector, indicate that the market for recycled aggregates continues to strengthen. In 2018, estimated volumes produced at stationary recycling plants from construction, demolition and excavation waste reached 50 million tonnes.

Commenting on the latest findings, report author Andy Sales said: ‘We have seen further evidence of the importance of recycled aggregates to the construction industry in 2018. Growth over the last two years in their production has been in contrast to a fall in the output of primary aggregates over the same period. Recycled aggregates can represent a more sustainable, economic or local alternative to the use of primary materials.’

According to BDS, the market for recycled aggregates remains very fragmented with no individual producer holding a market share in excess of 5%. This is in contrast to the primary aggregates market where the leading five suppliers share around 70% of the market between them.

UK construction activity continues to fall

The UK construction activity falls continue. IHS Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI fell in November (45.3), the 7th consecutive fall, at a slower rate than in October (44.2). Falls in all 3 sectors; commercial, civil engineering & housing.#ukconstruction https://t.co/lVjBPFkDHl pic.twitter.com/hh80amOTXm

— Noble Francis (@NobleFrancis) December 3, 2019

Hundreds of industrial waste dumps in Devon – many in former quarries

There are almost 300 - and you probably don't know most of them even exist!https://t.co/JU67mqHPSa

— Devon Live News (@DevonLiveNews) December 7, 2019

Defra's figures show there are 301 historic landfill sites in Devon - of which 293 contain industrial waste.

Wow. ‘Only AI can be trusted to provide data on cows’

In the recent post Bovine movements revisited – more than 2 years on we explained how Aggregate Industries has found itself in a pickle with cows, how its proposal to quarry Straitgate Farm would result in increased livestock movements across the B3174 Exeter Road to access replacement grazing.

Aggregate Industries' Transport Assessment has been tasked with looking at the implications of such movements. One line on the subject of the "Dairy Farm Operation" – with our emphasis – reads:

3.2.7 Should further data be issued directly to either the Mineral Planning Authority or Highway Authority without prior knowledge of the applicant and landowner (Aggregate Industries UK) then it is recommended that this information is treated as invalid unless it is specifically derived from the agreed data set initially provided by the Tenant Farmer which represents the worst case.

In other words, only Aggregate Industries – purveyor of everything truthful – can be trusted to provide the numbers when it comes to cows. What a joke.

What's Aggregate Industries worried about? That Devon County Council's planners can’t decide for themselves how valid or invalid information might be? That someone might spoil the show? That someone might let the cow out the bag, and tell it as it really is?

Remember, this is the company that conveniently forgot to mention the 150 cows in the first place. This is the company that has already produced a whole raft of fiction for the rest of the planning application without batting an eyelid.

But paragraph 3.2.7 already has a problem with truth. Currently dairy herd movements across the B3174 do not need to occur daily – in fact hardly ever. However, the Tenant Farmer's Land Agent has NOT agreed that the numbers they provided are "worst case", in fact – as we've already posted – far from it:

In the event that no cow tracks were installed at Straitgate, and in time that no additional cubicle housing were erected to house the dairy herd these movements would need to occur daily.

Aggregate Industries has not offered to provide cubicle housing. So much for the validity of that claim. But it's the paragraph preceding 3.2.7 above that we wanted to focus on here, where the company and its traffic consultants actually claim to know better than the Tenant Farmer – again, our emphasis:

3.2.6 Whilst the crossing times have been advised by the Tenant Farmer it should be recognised that the herd will move at the speed of the dominant cow and therefore crossing times may be less than those stated (the 15 minute delay representing the maximum period before the Farmer splits the crossing and is therefore unaffected by the speed of the cows). Dairy herds of similar size have been observed at other farms in Devon crossing a similar distance, without splitting the herd, in 4 minutes.

How valid is this information? Do Aggregate Industries and Horizon Consulting have expertise on such matters? Have they been trained in dominant cow theory, or are they talking bull? Given that Horizon raised the matter, let's look at what's said about dominant cows:

4. The majority of the dominant cows are at the front of the herd, but a significant number are present throughout the herd including the rear group: It is important that cows have space at all times to keep their distance and avoid forced interaction with cows around them of similar or higher dominance. Response: Don’t put pressure on the rear cows in the herd.

5. Dominant cows set the walking speed of the herd. Pressure on the rear cows on the track or by the backing gate causes the rear group to compact because they won’t overtake the dominant cows in front of them. The front cows are almost unaffected and so don’t walk any faster - they continue at their own speed. Response: Don’t put pressure on the rear cows in a herd.

The message seems clear: don't hurry cows – they go at their own speed. Anyone who's watched cows will know this for themselves. The timings put forward by the Tenant Farmer will no doubt have also included time for setting out and clearing away any barriers, and clearing muck off the road.

With Aggregate Industries' 4-minute claim in mind, let's look at cows crossing a road elsewhere in Devon, to watch the dominant cow theory in action:

Aggregate Industries and friends would of course recommend that this information is treated as invalid.

Plymouth’s Drakelands mine changes hands again

It was only in September that the Plymouth Herald reported "Plymouth’s Drakelands mine has a new owner – but it is unlikely any tungsten will be dug out of the ground." We posted on the subject at the time, but warned:

Will that be the last of mineral working in the area? Don’t hold your breath. In August, planning application DCC/4149/2019 appeared for land south west of Drakelands Mine, Sparkwell, for "exploratory trenching for mineral exploration."

Yesterday, Hargreaves Services plc announced it had sold the mine at Hemerdon to another party, who has "a view to recommencing tungsten mining operations in due course":

Following the announcement by Wolf on 10 October 2018 that it had ceased trading, Hargreaves has been in discussions with the Official Receiver, acting as liquidator of Wolf, and other interested parties including Devon County Council, the Environment Agency and various landowners regarding the future of the tungsten mine.

Earlier this year, Drakelands Restoration Limited ("DRL"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hargreaves, acquired various freehold and leasehold properties and an assignment of the minerals lease whilst discussions over the site's future progressed. DRL has been reimbursed for the costs of safeguarding and maintaining the site during the period of those discussions.

The Board is pleased to announce that it completed the sale of DRL to a third party, Tungsten West Limited ("TWL"), for £2.8m in cash on 29 November 2019. The sale proceeds will be paid to Hargreaves today. As a result of this transaction, TWL has acquired control of the Hemerdon mine with a view to recommencing tungsten mining operations in due course.

Industry experts have put the cost of reopening the mine "at about £40million."

Plymouth’s closed down Drakelands tungsten mine could reopen after being bought in a near £3million deal https://t.co/Keh7Cdg6Ru

— Plymouth Live (@Plymouth_Live) December 5, 2019

AI: We will make Straitgate farmland ‘better accessible and utilised more efficiently’

LOL 😂

You have to admire the creativity and chutzpah of the traffic consultants working on behalf of Aggregate Industries, the company with plans to quarry and store soil on 105 of the 145 acres at Straitgate Farm – 72% of the land available to the farm on the northern side of the B3174.

As a result of Aggregate Industries' plans, cows would need to cross the B3174 for replacement grazing. Up to four crossings a day would be required, since the milking parlour is on the northern side of the road. Our recent Freedom of Information request revealed that Aggregate Industries and Devon County Council have been bogged-down with this issue for more than 2 years.

Although we raised the matter in our response to the Council in March 2017, one of the Council's highways team nevertheless emailed Aggregate Industries' traffic consultants – Horizon Consulting Engineers – in September 2018, and asked:

Also does the tenant current use any of the fields that are to be used for the extraction for grazing? This could affect future movements of livestock.

Horizon's reply came in November 2018. Here's one paragraph from it – with our emphasis:

In terms of the current grazing patterns, yes the quarry will affect a couple of the fields on the northern side of the B3174 as a result of the first quarry phase – but as discussed at our previous meeting the construction of the cow tracks (as requested by the Tenant Farmer) will enable the movement of the livestock to the remaining fields on the northern side in a more efficient and less damaging operation. Fields which are therefore currently used less, due to the distance from the main sheds, then become better accessible and utilised more efficiently. The provision of the cow tracks and gates for the Farmer (at their request) therefore become the mitigation to maintain the baseline livestock movements.

You have to laugh! The person who wrote that either hasn't got a farming clue, or is blatantly trying to mislead the Council.

This claptrap is even formalised by Horizon in Aggregate Industries' Transport Assessment:

5.5.8 The provision of cow tracks, with additional gated field access points, will improve the accessibility to existing grazing land, via the efficient movement of livestock, and potentially reduce damage to grazing associated with the movement of the herd between fields.

You wonder how farmers have managed in the past – without the benefit of such wisdom.

Overlooking that for one moment, let's dispose of one lie straight away: The "couple of fields... of the first quarry phase" is shown below. Some 56 acres – 9 fields in all – would be affected by quarrying and associated soil storage from the off:

Initially, the applicant will need to resume some 22.5ha to facilitate the first stage of the proposed development (Phase 1). In addition to the area required for mineral extraction, this area will include the land required for temporary soil storage bunds and access. 2.1.10

As for the "provision of the cow tracks and gates" making land "become better accessible and utilised more efficiently".... well, do we really need to explain? Perhaps we do.

Firstly, no farmer these days can afford to let land be under-utilised.

And however many tracks and gates are provided – however whizzy – however fast they deliver cow-to-field – they do not provide replacement grazing. Even if the tracks and gates were gold-plated, smelt of roses, and provided all manner of sensory pleasures to the cows, they are not going to make up for the amount of pasture lost to Aggregate Industries – almost 40% in Phase 1 alone, they are not going to be "the mitigation to maintain the baseline livestock movements". Sorry to disappoint, but anyone with half a brain can see that. Horizon Consulting claim they provide "civil engineering, geoenvironmental and geotechnical consultancy services" – perhaps they should stick to that in the future.

This photo, taken last week, shows the northern-most field at Straitgate – furthest from the main sheds.

Goodness. How on earth did those cows get there without the help of Aggregate Industries & friends? 🤔