Aggregate Industries' planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm proposes that the as-dug sand and gravel be hauled to Hillhead Quarry near Uffculme for processing.
It’s a bizarre proposal, given that Straitgate Farm is 23 miles away from Hillhead, given that each load would necessitate a round-trip of 46 miles, given that the "OFT considered that it is economical to transport aggregates around 30 miles".
It’s even more bizarre when you realise that the sand and gravel at Hillhead is capable of supporting existing and future markets for at least the next 30 years.
How do we know? An Aggregate Industries' planning manager was helpful recently in confirming as much. According to correspondence supporting the relocation of the company’s asphalt plant:
Hillhead... is an area of existing and future allocated mineral development and it is therefore seen as the long-term location for future minerals development to serve this part of Devon because of the excellent transport links that it has.
Of course, it’s no surprise that Hillhead is the long-term location for future minerals development, given that it has more than 10 million tonnes of sand and gravel still in the ground next door to its recently relocated processing plant.
But it’s useful to hear it from the horse’s mouth, to have it clarified before Aggregate Industries gets around to having its application for Straitgate Farm determined.
Because if Hillhead – the area of existing and future minerals development with its excellent transport links – is already so very able to serve this part of Devon without any input from Straitgate, so very able to serve future markets before knowing whether the Straitgate application will be successful, there is obviously no need for material from Straitgate, and obviously no need to haul sand and gravel a total of 2.5 million miles in the middle of a climate emergency.
