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? 🤔
