Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for April & May

As we first posted here, Aggregate Industries has pledged to provide monthly updates of the work it has carried out, or plans to carry out, in relation to Straitgate Farm, as it tries to satisfy the pre-commencement conditions and obligations that are required before mineral extraction can begin. 

Aggregate Industries' Planning Manager has this week provided the first update in two months of what the company has apparently undertaken in April and May: 

As you are aware we wrote to all the owners of the private water supplies in April setting out further commitments and asked that owners who wanted to be part of the monitoring scheme to let us know by the 31 May. 

Also in May we have responded to the Tree Preservation Order proposed by East Devon DC on land at Straitgate Farm. 

In actual fact, it has been brought to our attention that not all of the owners of private water supplies were contacted in April. 

The Planning Manager subsequently informed us that the company: 

...will be contacting PWS owners one further time in June.

Aggregate Industries causes more dust problems

Dust from quarries and construction sites is not only a nuisance – it's a health hazard.

 

Construction workers die every week from lung diseases caused by past exposure to dust. Many more suffer from chronic lung conditions that ruin lives. We have a free download with what you need to know as a busy builder: https://t.co/P56Eap6BMa #Dust #DustKills #Construction pic.twitter.com/CFhnlw7bii

— Health and Safety Executive (@H_S_E) May 19, 2023

 

Aggregate Industries has a history of failing to control dust – as we have previously posted. 

Now the company’s Chelmsford site is in the news:

 

These are two lorries we witnessed when we visited the scene last week - both leaving clouds of dust in their wake. pic.twitter.com/jOqCSSUdAG

— Ellis Whitehouse (@E_Whitehouse293) May 22, 2023

Aggregate Industries claims: 

We have taken a number of proactive measures to help alleviate the problem.

One complainant reported: 

There is just dust all over the place.

We're getting it in our eyes, we're breathing it in, it's going all over the site, everything - it's just phenomenal. 

Chelmsford construction firm promises to address dust problem https://t.co/YCjBz9Vgyy

— BBC Science News (@BBCScienceNews) May 23, 2023