According to Aggregate Industries' new resource statement, the resource available at Straitgate Farm has been downgraded again, and now stands at:
1.06 million tonnes of saleable aggregate (1.33 million tonnes of as raised (unprocessed) aggregate to be hauled from the site)
Back in March 2017, Aggregate Industries had claimed:
3.9.1 The proposed development would release 1.5 million tonnes of as-raised sand and gravel equivalent to 1.2 million saleable tonnes of quality aggregate into the Devon marketplace
However, in July 2017, we warned that AI’s extraction plans are now down to 6 fields and 1.1 million tonnes; in fact, 1.13 million saleable tonnes to be exact – based on Aggregate Industries’ own numbers.
This figure has now been revised down yet again, after the "maximum" water table – the base of any quarry – turned out not to be the maximum at all and had to be revised upwards.
So, as the public are pushed through yet another consultation, we find that even the descriptions of Aggregate Industries’ two in-tandem proposals – "Extraction of up to 1.5 million tonnes of as raised sand and gravel..." and "Importation of up to 1.5 million tonnes..." – are incorrect and misleading.
And that goes for the myriad of documents referencing such numbers too.
Because there are not "up to 1.5 million tonnes". The "benefit" of each application is being exaggerated.
In fact, if 1.5 million tonnes were ever quarried at Straitgate the maximum water table would have been breached, against conditions proposed by the Environment Agency.
The resource at Straitgate Farm is down from 20 million tonnes in 1965, down from 7.25 million tonnes in 2011, down from 3.6 million tonnes in 2012, down from 1.66 million in 2015, down from 1.2 million in 2017, and is now 1.06 million. It’s an amazing amount to lose, down 36% since 2015 alone.
And Aggregate Industries hasn’t even started digging yet. Typically when the diggers do start they lose even more – as evidenced locally at Venn Ottery, Marshbroadmoor, Houndaller, and Chard Junction.
And judging by the number of times the "maximum" water table has been exceeded, the base of any quarry would in all likelihood have to be raised again.
Aggregate Industries now claims:
In respect of the revised Mineral Resource Assessment based on the latest modelling of the Maximum Winter Water Table the revised figure of the reserve is still over 1 Million saleable tonnes which will make a significant contribution to the supply of sand and gravel within Devon and will help to maintain the adequate and steady supply that this allocated site was identified to deliver as part of the adopted Devon Minerals Local Plan.
But even that statement is wrong. It’s not a reserve. On this side of the debate, we’re still talking about a resource, and an ever shrinking one at that.
And that shrinking "benefit" is the one Devon County Council must weigh against the increasing list of problems – the irreversible damage to water supplies, the 2.5 million mile climate-damaging haulage plan, the heady and as yet unassessed mix of up to 216 extra HGVs a day and 4x daily cattle crossing on Ottery’s busiest road, the grubbed up ancient hedgerows, the felled veteran oaks, the loss of prime agricultural land and the setting of a Grade II listed Devon longhouse, the increased risk of flooding from infiltration plans that can't work, and a whole host of other issues.
