Aggregate Industries’ ‘unilateral ultimatum’

Local private water users are understandably unhappy about Aggregate Industries’ threadbare legal obligation – the company’s Section 106 Unilateral Undertaking, or, as many have called it, ultimatum. 

This legal document, approved by the Planning Inspectors following the Public Inquiry last October, details what Aggregate Industries is obligated to do in the event that any private water supply in the surrounding area is harmed as a result of the company digging into the aquifer at Straitgate Farm. 

Various concerns have been raised with Devon County Council as the Mineral Planning Authority. Many of these concerns, and other ones too, were raised by SAG at the Inquiry. Aggregate Industries' legal representatives dismissed them out of hand – as shown here (with our legal team’s annotated responses) – claiming the UU "fully addresses even the fanciful scenarios that the [SAG] Note proposes": 

the Appellant notes that no Private Water Supplies Interest has raised any concerns with the terms of the licence, including the Rule 6 Party. The terms of the Offer Letter, including the licence have also been agreed with the Council. There is therefore no evidence of any issue with the licence in any event. 

This is plainly not true. Cadhay had been raising concerns for years. These concerns were again raised at the Inquiry by SAG as the Rule 6 party. If other private water users had not raised concerns, it was because Aggregate Industries had not talked to them to find out their specific needs. 

The Planning Inspectors accepted that: 

52. The measures provided in the UU to mitigate loss of flow or water quality have been subject to criticism both by the MPA and by SAG. 

but nevertheless decided: 

55. The UU is provided as a precautionary measure in respect of water supplies and is only necessary on this basis. We find that the UU would be an effective mechanism to provide alternative water supplies. 

In response to the concerns since raised by local people, Devon County Council, who is not a signatory to the agreement, said: 

We have referred your concerns and those of others to the County Council’s legal department and it is their view that we cannot offer legal advice to third parties on this matter and that you would need to take your own legal advice to decide how to proceed. 

Clearly, local people are now on their own in the event of any dispute if their water supplies become harmed – up against the deep pockets of a global cement giant.  

The barrister representing SAG, said in his closing statement: 

The Appellant has given little attention to the practical details of the mitigation necessary to protect the 120 people, businesses, three farms and the Cadhay House Estate who rely on private water supplies. It is absolutely no excuse to say that private water supplies might be harmed in a number of different ways. The multiple types of problem which might occur underscore the need for proper solutions to be worked up. In that regard it is important to bear in mind the inequality of arms between the Appellant and the many individuals whose private water supplies the development plan requires to be protected. 

What Devon County Council does have some say over going forward is Water Protection and Monitoring, as detailed in Condition 27: 

Prior to the commencement of development, a water supply monitoring scheme shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The scheme shall secure the ongoing monitoring, management and maintenance of water supplies and shall specify: 

(a) the monitoring arrangements (including monitoring of pH levels) for private water supplies;

(b) the monitoring arrangements (including monitoring of pH levels) for stream flows at private water supplies; 

(c) the frequency of monitoring at the private water supplies which for the avoidance of doubt shall be a minimum of once per month for the lifetime of the planning permission; 

(d) the continuation of the surface water and groundwater monitoring points including a requirement to maintain a piezometer at each corner of each working sub-phase of the development and to replace any piezometers that become lost through quarry working; 

(e) the maintenance arrangements for the piezometers at the private water supplies; 

(f) the form and content of the annual monitoring report which is to be provided to the Mineral Planning Authority in respect of the private water supplies. 

The development shall be implemented in accordance with the approved monitoring scheme. 

It is understandable how all this, which for many will be the first formal communication from Aggregate Industries, must all have come as a nasty shock for private water users. No friendly introductions. No apologies for its plans to dig up the neighbourhood and cause untold aggravation. Just a legal ultimatum that will leave a large number of people with 20 or more years of worry and uncertainty. 

Is it any wonder mineral planning applications attract so much opposition?

‘Sustainability is at the heart of our business’, parrots AI – and thousands of others

We welcome the announcement of the new Department for Energy Security and #NetZero. #Sustainability is at the heart of our business and we are delighted to see that the need for more renewable sources and solutions is being recognised. Read our vision: https://t.co/Sa83zelOby 🌎 pic.twitter.com/oxBlPF23Eb

— Aggregate Industries (@AggregateUK) February 7, 2023

"Sustainability is at the heart of our business" is a phrase Aggregate Industries parrots again and again. But it's not the only company to do so. A search for the phrase on Google produces 140,000 results.

As this article remarks: 

Suspiciously similar versions of the same trite slogan inundate press releases, CEO speeches, advertising campaigns, media interviews and sustainability reports the world over.

We know the slogan means nothing to Aggregate Industries – as its plans for Straitgate Farm with processing of as-dug sand and gravel an unprecedented 23 miles away at Hillhead Quarry confirm. 

The article goes on: 

If ever there was a phrase that was so obviously extracted from the bowels of the corporate communications department and inserted into the mouth of an unsuspecting executive, this is it. 

The truth is, if sustainability actually was central to so many business philosophies, the planet would probably not be quite as warm as it is now.

So why are so many brands hiding behind the same slogan when talking about a topic that is now under such intense scrutiny from investors, regulators and consumers? 

"There is a perceived ‘safety in sameness’ – particularly when it comes to sustainability communications," says Suzy Goulding, who leads sustainability for communications company Publicis Groupe in Asia. As long as brands say exactly the same as their peers, no-one will ask awkward questions, appears to be the reasoning, she suggests. 

Using hackneyed slogans like "sustainability is in our DNA" achieves the opposite of shielding a company from scrutiny, Goulding contends. "The first thing I would want to ask a client if this was their opening statement would be: prove it."  

Fossil fuels companies use the "DNA" mantra often, observes Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, a non-profit pushing for public relations firms to stop working for Big Oil.  

"For most companies it is meaningless, self-serving bullsh*t. Either, it is an aspiration from their executive team, or a blatant tactic from the marketing team to capitalise on green consumer sentiment,” she says. 

Brands that have genuinely embedded sustainability into their businesses, like clothing brand Patagonia and confectioner Tony’s Chocolonely, can usually clearly articulate what their purpose is without a generic catch-all phrase, says Darian McBain, the former CSO of the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Thai Union, who recently started a consultancy. 

She says businesses are feeling pressured to insert sustainability somewhere in the language they use, but don’t really understand how or why. “Sustainability is at the heart of our business” means little, isn’t measurable but keeps you firmly in the pack to meet generic stakeholder expectations,” says McBain. 

For some businesses, a more appropriate phrase would be "sustainability is the appendix of our business", McBain suggests: "No real purpose, can be removed surgically without significant interruption to longevity, but has significant implications if it bursts."

With growing pressure on brands to prove that their sustainability claims are real, with serious legal consequences for those that aren’t – just ask Shell, Danone, H&M, Deutsche Bank and others – loose, generalised claims now feel perilously out of date. 

Brands, please stop saying 'sustainability is in our DNA'. If #sustainability really was at the heart of everything businesses did, the planet probably would not be 1.2°C warmer than it should be. It's time to stop using the same meaningless slogan https://t.co/ZeMmePtg2f

— Robin Hicks (@RobinHicks_) February 1, 2023

Holcim targeted by climate activists

Last week, Holcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries, the company who recently won permission to trash Straitgate Farm – was targeted by climate activists. The company’s Zurich HQ was daubed with the German word "Klimazerstörer", or "climate destroyer".

Hazel dormice should be classified as endangered, new research suggests

Hazel dormice should be classified as endangered, new research suggests https://t.co/rUMtNmLPez

— Independent Climate (@indy_climate) February 10, 2023

The first paper from my PhD is out today! 🥳For anyone interested in conservation status and hazel dormice 🐭 https://t.co/wh8Sd5vB9b

— Ellie Scopes (@ScopesEllie) February 10, 2023

HS2 got its nature figures wrong, new report reveals

HS2 – already plagued with issues – has, according to The Wildlife Trusts, underestimated its impact on habitats and wildlife. 

BREAKING! 🚨

Our natural world is being threatened…again! Buckle up for a thread as we take you through the catalogue of errors in @HS2ltd’s nature sums https://t.co/atXTEquuUr 🧵 (1/5) pic.twitter.com/4PhAHaCMeZ

— The Wildlife Trusts (@WildlifeTrusts) February 8, 2023

The charity is urging wildlife lovers to sign this open letter. They claim:

many well established tree-lined and species-rich hedgerows, which provide berries, shelter and nesting places for wildlife, have been given a lower nature value than the new hedgerows that HS2 Ltd is going to plant.

We shouldn’t be surprised. It was the same for Aggregate Industries’ plans for Straitgate Farm, where centuries-old 4m-wide biodiversity-rich hedgerows were valued at 39.92 units, less than their young sapling replacements at 43.19 units. 

Why did this matter at Straitgate? These units formed part of the Planning Inspectors’ decision:  

85. …there would be a 15% net gain in biodiversity… which would further weigh significantly in favour. 

Devon County Council’s ecology witness said it wasn't clear how these figures had been derived:  

5.7 Subsequent to biodiversity metric offsetting calculations provided in the July 2017 Regulation 22 Ecology Response, SLR submitted a recalculation of Biodiversity Net Gain using the Defra Metric 2.0 tool in January 2021 [CD4.51A] and returned an overall 18.07% increase in habitat units and 8.18% increase in hedgerow units. The report states that the scheme provides an overall net gain in biodiversity units of 15% but it is not clear how this figure has been arrived at based on the headline summary figures from the Metric 2.0 (habitats, hedgerows and riverine habitats are calculated separately). 

Maybe it was smoke and mirrors, maybe it was magic. Whatever it was, the approach of biodiversity net gain clearly trades wildlife losses today for uncertain future gains – with a huge number of mitigation commitments from developers failing to be delivered.  

Industrial trials start on zero-carbon cement production

Industrial trials starts on zero-carbon cement https://t.co/KbtWqNpnqJ #constructionnews #construction #businessnews pic.twitter.com/Fr1cW981PL

— Construction Index (@TCIndex) February 8, 2023

The Cement 2 Zero project aims to demonstrate that concrete can be recycled to create a slag forming addition that could, when cooled rapidly, replace Portland cement.  

The two-year industrial trial will test each stage of the production process, bringing together the Materials Processing Institute, the University of Cambridge and industry partners – Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Celsa, Day Aggregates and Tarmac. Eventually the zero carbon cement – known as Cambridge Electric Cement – will be used in a real UK construction project.  

Philippa Horton of the University of Cambridge, who created the project consortium, said: "If Cambridge Electric Cement lives up to the promise it has shown in early laboratory trials, when combined with other innovative technologies, it could be a pivotal point in the journey to a zero-emissions society."

‘Construction mineral products sales drop at fastest pace since 2012’

That's according to the Mineral Products Association: 

As the year closed, sales volumes of primary aggregates (crushed rock and sand & gravel) in Great Britain had fallen by 8.2% on an annual basis in 2022, asphalt fell by 6.5% and ready-mixed concrete by 3.8%, according to the latest quarterly survey by the MPA. Excluding the anomaly due to Covid in 2020, these are the fastest rates of decline recorded since 2012 for aggregates and asphalt, and the second fastest rate of decline for ready-mixed concrete.

RED FLAG: UK producers of #aggregates, #asphalt and #concrete had a challenging end to 2022. Weakness in the market for these heavy-side materials is a red flag for the wider #construction sector.

Full story:https://t.co/CkboQ4cU56#economy2023 #budget2023 #essentialminerals pic.twitter.com/2uJs38CABc

— Mineral Products Association (@MineralProduct) February 9, 2023

‘No digging at Straitgate before 2025’ – says Aggregate Industries

Oh, the tales Aggregate Industries has told on its way to winning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm.

Would locals have been more sympathetic to the idea of a quarry at Straitgate if they hadn’t been spun so much fiction? Possibly not – but the company will now face a harder job if it wants to build any trust with the local community. 

Last week, Aggregate Industries’ personnel – delivering letters to local people with private water supplies now at risk – said that, because of pre-commencement conditions, work would not start at Straitgate before 2025. 

This is some 15 years after the company put Straitgate forward in a call for aggregate sites and some 57 years since the first planning application was turned down – with permission now granted for an amount just 1/8th or 1/20th of what was hoped for at those respective times. If all mineral planning applications were that successful, the industry would be on its knees. 

But who knows whether 2025 will actually be the year that bulldozers finally rip Straitgate Farm apart? 

Once upon a time, back in 2015, Aggregate Industries said that Straitgate should come on stream quickly to replace exhausted reserves at nearby Venn Ottery Quarry. The company claimed: 

1.15 AI produces sand and gravel at Venn Ottery Quarry, which currently has permitted reserves capable of providing saleable material until early 2016 based on current levels of sales (350,000 tonnes per year). It is therefore necessary to plan for additional reserves being available from early 2016. The sand and gravel reserves at Straitgate Farm are considered to be a direct replacement for reserves at Venn Ottery. 

What was wrong with the millions of tonnes of sand and gravel already with permission at Hillhead – which the company is now using? The company had another tale: 

5.7 AI also has reserves at Hillhead Quarry (the Houndaller Extraction Area) located at Uffculme in East Devon. The extraction of the Houndaller reserves as an alternative to the mineral deposit at Straitgate is not a sustainable solution by virtue of the % ratio of gravel to sand. The Houndaller deposit is made up of 75% sand: 25% gravel. To meet the needs of the county in terms of gravel production would lead to a massive over-production of sand on account of this imbalance. 

Somehow, since 2016, and now apparently not until 2025, Aggregate Industries has managed to meet the needs of the county with the reserves at Hillhead, and without the benefit of Straitgate. If anybody has seen a "massive over-production of sand" littering the Devon landscape, the Mineral Planning Authority at Devon County Council would surely like to know. 

Straitgate material will be taken 23 miles to Hillhead for processing. One assumes Aggregate Industries will have assessed the financial viability of this, but in 2015 the company claimed: 

8.27 If a processing plant were erected at Hillhead to process the Straitgate mineral, it would need to be substantially modified or reduced to be able to process the Hillhead mineral, rendering such a circumstance economically unviable. 

This in contrast with what the company claimed at the Public Inquiry: 

3.13 In contrast, the sand and gravel deposit indigenous to Hillhead Quarry is red in colour and is sand rich, containing circa 20% gravel. The two mineral deposits complement each other well and it is proposed to process the two deposits together to provide the market with the mix of products it demands. 

The "mythical yellow sand of Straitgate" was "debunked" at the Inquiry. Furthermore, the company also once claimed: 

8.36 It should also be noted that the current markets for the Venn Ottery mineral are in Exeter and East Devon. This is anticipated to apply to mineral from Straitgate. In the event of processing at Hillhead, this would result in further additional mileage being incurred to transport mineral product to the markets.

This again is contrary to what was claimed at the Public Inquiry: 

6.96 The calculations in the report show that the appeal proposal for extraction at Straitgate Farm with onward processing at Hillhead Quarry will result in 11% lower GHG emissions than meeting the demand for sand and gravel in proposed markets from existing quarries. This is mainly due to these markets being closer to Hillhead than existing suppliers.

which was in turn contrary to another previous claim: 

8.48 Processing at Hillhead may be feasible, but would generate a massively greater quantity of CO2 emissions from the additional mileage required to be travelled. 

This was a line played back to Aggregate Industries at the Inquiry, a line that – as with so many other things – the Inspectors were happy to disregard. 

So, going forward, people should be forgiven if they don’t trust everything Aggregate Industries tells them.

Aggregate Industries’ water monitoring scheme

Some 120 people and businesses and farms are dependent on the Straitgate aquifer for their drinking water supplies – supplies now at risk from Aggregate Industries’ planning permission. 

Last week, Aggregate Industries personnel delivered invitations to local people reliant on those private water supplies to join the company’s water monitoring scheme. This was not some charitable gesture. It forms part of the company’s legal agreement – necessary to secure permission – which undertook "within one calendar month of the date of the Planning Permission" to:  

send an Offer Letter to Private Water Supplies Interests offering to monitor their water supply in accordance with the Water Supply Monitoring Scheme for the lifetime of the Planning Permission and thereafter in accordance with the Post Restoration Water Supply Monitoring Scheme...;

where:

"Private Water Supply Interests" means those persons who own or occupy the Private Water Supplies as listed in Appendix 7 or as otherwise notified to the Owner pursuant to paragraph 1.1.3 of Schedule 1 to this Deed;

A template of the offer letter can be found here.  

Aggregate Industries will provide "12 months of baseline monitoring (consisting of monthly visits to check water levels and sampling of water quality)." Furthermore, in line with condition 27: 

Prior to the commencement of development, a water supply monitoring scheme shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority.

Amongst other things, this shall specify: 

the frequency of monitoring at the private water supplies which for the avoidance of doubt shall be a minimum of once per month for the lifetime of the planning permission

Indonesian islanders file climate lawsuit against Holcim

Residents of an Indonesian island, at risk of losing their livelihoods due to the rise in sea level and flooding, have filed a lawsuit against the parent company of Aggregate Industries seeking damages for its role in climate change. One of the plaintiffs warned: 

Our existence is under threat. We want those responsible to now finally take action. 

Not our problem, says Swiss cement giant Holcim: 

We do not believe that court cases focused on single companies are an effective mechanism to tackle the global complexity of climate action.

Well they wouldn’t, would they? This the company that claims climate change is a "top priority", but whose cost to society in 2021 was 156 million tons of CO2 emissions – up from 146 million tons in 2020.

Holcim is one of the 50 largest emitters of CO2 out of all companies worldwide. After a fruitless conciliation hearing, the plaintiffs filed a civil suit against the company on behalf of the entire island, the existence of which is under threat, at the Cantonal Court of Zug 🇨🇭. pic.twitter.com/LKjhtYxTru

— ECCHR (@ECCHRBerlin) February 1, 2023

A decade ago lawsuits like this were nearly impossible to prove

Now climate science can directly attribute a company’s culpability. In this case .42% of damages

Hard to overstate the brave new world of financial liability this creates. Investors beware😳 https://t.co/bm6lkZ6X5f

— Justin Guay (@Guay_JG) February 1, 2023

Secondary aggregate sales in Devon continue to rise – whilst sand & gravel flatlines

In 2021, sales of secondary aggregates in Devon exceeded sales of sand and gravel – according to Devon County Council’s 11th Local Aggregate Assessment, published last week.

This is not a one-off – as previous LAAs confirm. It has been the case for the last 4 years. Indeed, sales have been growing for some time. Back in 2012, sales of secondary aggregates were 24% lower than sales of sand and gravel; in 2021, they were 30% higher. 

Devon County Council commented: 

the three years sales averages for... sand and gravel remain below the ten years sales averages for the second consecutive year [whilst] sales of secondary aggregates have increased by 14% in 2021 from the previous year 

With hundreds of millions of tonnes of this waste product blighting the landscape in Devon and Cornwall, secondary aggregates are a sustainable alternative to primary virgin aggregates – the sort that will be dug up with untold damage at Straitgate Farm. 

In the LAA, the Council explains: 

3.3.1 The major source of secondary aggregates in Devon is the by-products derived from the extraction and processing of china clay in the Lee Moor area of Devon, which in 2021 accounted for 79% of the county’s production of secondary aggregates (a reduction of approximately 20% from 2020). For each tonne of saleable china clay, up to nine tonnes of other materials are produced, with two main elements capable of use as secondary aggregate:  stent (rock), which can be used as general fill or, after crushing and screening, for other aggregate purposes; and  tip sand (washed material comprising quartz, unaltered feldspar and mica) which, with grading and washing, can be used for a variety of aggregate purposes including concrete and building sand. 

3.3.5 Two new sources of secondary aggregates are included in this year’s figures, one of which is Hemerdon Mine, near Plymouth, where the current operator, Tungsten West, has expressed a clear intention to re-start the winning of tungsten and tin, and commenced commercial secondary aggregates production in February 2021 through a new company called Aggregates West. At the time of publication of this report, Aggregates West were also seeking to vary a condition on the mining consent which currently restricts the export of secondary aggregates to 50 HGVs per day. The second new site is the incinerator bottom ash (IBA) recycling facility at Hill Barton Business Park, Exeter, which was granted permission in November 2019 and became operational in February 2020. Whilst the upturn in secondary aggregates sales figures for 2021 can be partially attributed to these two new sites, it is considered that the significance of Hemerdon as a source of secondary aggregate could increase in the future if the current planning application is approved. 

Since this was written, and as we posted, Tungsten West’s plans to increase HGV movements of secondary aggregates from the Hemerdon Mine from 50 to 200 per day have been put on hold, after its planning application DCC/4314/2022 – which attracted hundreds of objections – was withdrawn. 

Meanwhile, and as we record here, the new LAA charts the fall in Devon's sand and gravel landbank from 7.6 years in 2020 to 6.5 years in 2021. This is less than the 7 years suggested by the NPPF, which allowed the Planning Inspectors to boldly claim "a shortage of sand and gravel in Devon" and thereby "great weight in favour" of permitting mineral extraction of the 1 million tonnes – a relatively minor 2 years' worth of additional landbank – at Straitgate Farm. 

Inexplicably, the Inspectors chose to ignore the 23 million tonne resource at Penslade, sitting next door to Aggregate Industries’ processing plant at Hillhead, which will provide Devon with nearly 50 years' worth of the very same material.

Protesters hold ‘funeral’ for site of Holcim quarry extension

Holcim’s capacity to wreak environmental destruction is not limited to East Devon. Last month, the parent company of Aggregate Industries won another quarry battle, this time on its home turf.

We had previously posted about the site in 2021, when police cleared protesters using tear gas and rubber bullets. 

Last month, campaigners finally lost their battle and held a ‘funeral’ for the site.

The Federal Court has ruled that cement group Holcim can extend its quarry at the sensitive natural site, but must fill the crater in after it has been exploited. https://t.co/ZP5DJomLie

— swissinfo.ch (@swissinfo_en) January 21, 2023

Starting from the village of La Sarraz, the protesters went up to the Birette plateau at the Mormont site, stopping in front of the pit already dug by Holcim and throwing in a symbolic funeral wreath. Speakers included Swiss Nobel prize-winner for chemistry Jacques Dubochet.   

Alain Chanson, president of the Association to Save the Mormont, said environmental activists had been defending the site for ten years “against the voracity of Holcim”, but that the Federal Court had just “condemned it to death". 

The protest follows a decision this month by the Federal Court on appeals by three associations against the extension of the Mormont quarry. The court ruled that while Holcim could exploit the new site known as Birette, it must restore damage to the landscape afterwards. Chanson said that "the fight goes on" to preserve what remains of the Mormont, whose environmental richness was recognized by the court. 

Activists occupied the site in October 2020 in an attempt to stop the quarry extension. However, they were forcibly evacuated by police in March 2021.