Merry Christmas

Another year has passed, and even though Aggregate Industries won planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm almost two years ago – after a decade-long effort – the company has still not recovered a single bucket-load of that oh-so-precious sand and gravel from the site.

Having achieved little over the last 2 years, the company has left itself much to do in the next 12 months if it is to implement the permission before it expires on 5 January 2026. 

For instance, it must: 

• have a raft of schemes to satisfy pre-commencement planning conditions approved by Devon County Council;
• evict the dairy farm tenants – whose family has farmed at Straitgate for nearly 100 years – to overcome the expired cattle crossing permission and to achieve the enhanced biodiversity net gain figures required; 
• design a workable site access scheme to fit in the narrow space between the two TPO’d oak trees and the third party hedgebank; 
• design a surface water management plan – based on a series of yet-to-be-performed and results-far-from-certain infiltrometer drainage tests – that will not risk creating any prohibited-by-planning-conditions bodies of water, noting how problematical surface water management is currently proving for the company at Hillhead; 
• drill 4 new boreholes, install piezometers, and complete 12 months of baseline monitoring from them; 
• correct some of its water monitoring programme, and complete 12 months of accurate baseline monitoring; 
• and more... 

And yet – as the company made clear earlier in the year – Aggregate Industries currently has no appetite to work the site, given the economic outlook and the costly HVO-fuelled multi-million-mile haulage plan. 

During the year, however, Aggregate Industries did find the motivation to apply to quarry another 460,000 tonnes of sand and gravel – the same sort of sand and gravel that underlies Straitgate – at its Houndaller site next to its processing plant at Hillhead Quarry near Uffculme, that, according to the company, will see it through to the end of 2029: 

The current estimate completion date for extraction [at Houndaller] is end of 2029 with completion of restoration and landscaping by 2031, this is based on an average production rate of 350,000 tonnes per annum.

Although, judging by the figures, Aggregate Industries has in fact been producing sand and gravel at Hillhead over the last few years at the reduced rate of just 250,000 tonnes per annum. At that rate, Houndaller’s reserves would last another 8 years or so. 

So, no wonder Aggregate Industries doesn’t really seem that bothered with Straitgate.   

But such mineral talk is very un-Christmassy, so, to finish off the year on a lighter note, here’s a popular Christmas carol – with a Straitgate twist and themed scene to match – courtesy of the other sort of AI: 

– Verse 1 –


Dashing through the woods,


Where the oak trees proudly stand,


Dormice make their homes,


In this precious, thriving land.


But here comes a plan,


To tear it all away,


We’ll raise our voices loud and clear,


To keep destruction at bay! 

– Chorus –


Stop the quarry, save the trees,


Let the dormice play,


Drinking water’s under threat,


Don’t wash it all away! 


Stop the quarry, save our springs,


Nature’s worth the fight,


Protect this land for future dreams,


And keep our future bright! 

– Verse 2 –


The oak trees stand so tall,


With roots both deep and true,


They’ve weathered years of storms,


Don’t let them fall for you.


The dormice need their space,


The water must stay clean,


No digging here, no dusty trucks,


Let Devon stay serene! 

– Chorus –


Stop the quarry, save the trees,


Let the dormice play,


Drinking water’s under threat,


Don’t wash it all away!


Stop the quarry, save our springs,


Nature’s worth the fight,


Protect this land for future dreams,


And keep our future bright! 

– Verse 3 –

Devon’s land is rare,


A treasure we must guard,


With ancient oaks and wildlife here,


Destruction hits so hard.


The drinking water’s pure,


A gift we must defend,


No quarrying should take its toll,


This harm must have an end! 

– Chorus –


Stop the quarry, save the trees,


Let the dormice play,


Drinking water’s under threat,


Don’t wash it all away!


Stop the quarry, save our springs,


Nature’s worth the fight,


Protect our home for all to share,


And keep our future bright! 

We wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for November

Shortly after Aggregate Industries received planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm, the company agreed to provide monthly progress updates. 

It has not been an onerous task – as previous updates demonstrate. 

A gentle reminder was sent to Aggregate Industries earlier this month. The response? 

Any update provided by the company will be posted here, as and when received.

EDIT 17.12.24

There are no updates this month.

AI’s Hillhead surface water management plan – more dodgy assumptions?

Flooding can have a devastating impact on communities. Not only can it cause damage to property and possessions, it can cause injury and death. The Met Office says we should expect an increasing frequency of extreme rain: 

…research, published in Nature Communications, found that under a high emissions scenario (RCP 8.5) rainfall events in the UK exceeding 20mm/hr could be four times as frequent by 2080 compared to the 1980s.

Managing flood risk is therefore an important business. Council’s trust consultants to get the figures right. 

Last month, Aggregate Industries submitted further information to Devon County Council in relation to its planning application DCC/4399/2024 for Hillhead Quarry near Uffculme, which is in part to deal with the quarry’s ponding problems.

 

In its revised surface water management plan for the site – where "all surface water will be managed in the former extraction area, with Houndaller Pond only acting as an exceedance route" – Aggregate Industries’ water consultants BCL Hydro – the same crew working on Straitgate – made a big assumption: 

The fact that [Houndaller Plantation] pond can sustain long-term and regular abstraction… means that it would be similarly effective as a soakaway.

We questioned this claim in the post AI sense-checks AI... and its soakaway assumptions at Hillhead, and wrote to Devon County Council saying: 

There remains, therefore, no cogent evidence – measurements or otherwise – of the soakaway capacity at Houndaller Plantation Pond. It is wrong to assume that Houndaller Pond would be “similarly effective as a soakaway”, and therefore it does not necessarily ‘follow’ that Houndaller Pond could cope with exceedance flows from a storm event.

But there appeared to be other wild assumptions put forward by Aggregate Industries’ water consultants too. As we set out to Devon County Council:

... it appears that the applicant’s revised plans have not allowed sufficient storage space within the extraction area for the design storm event: 

The applicant claims “the ASV [Attenuation Storage Volume] requirement equates to 3,350 m3 during the design event (1 in 100-yr + 45% allowance for storm intensity due to climate change)” and that “the revised surface water management plan for Houndaller (by incorporating 3,416.60 m3 within the former extraction area) will provide sufficient storage space for the design event.” 

The applicant claims runoff rates and attenuation requirements were computed using “the assumption that 12.75 hectares [127,500m2] of the catchment area would possess runoff characteristics analogous to that of an impermeable paved surface.” The applicant has not provided any output from those computations to substantiate the conclusions. 

An ASV of 3,350m3 divided by the impermeable catchment area of 127,500m2, implies the applicant has modelled for a rainfall event of 0.0263m or 26.3mm. 

This would seem to be an inadequate figure, given the historic records for nearby areas: 

“June 1946 In Cullompton, 2.35 in [60 mm] of rain fell in 45 minutes and ... in the lower part of the town flooding was 3 ft deep in houses.”

“22 October 1960 Flooding occurred in Crediton, following a total of 64 mm of rain on 20 and 21 October (recorded in Exeter)” 

“21 November 2012 Between 20mm to 39mm (0.8in to 1.5in) fell in 12 hours overnight on already saturated ground.” 

https://www.middevon.gov.uk/media/345917/appendix-j-historic-records-of-flooding.pdf 

The University of Exeter Weather Observation Records has the Highest Daily Rainfall at 47.20 mm on 4 September 2024.

https://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/uoeweather/records/ 

The UK’s wettest day, in records back to 1891, was 3 October 2020. The average rainfall across the entire UK was calculated at 31.7mm. The Met Office says record-breaking rainfall like that seen on 3 October 2020 could be 10 times more likely by 2100.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2021/record- breaking-rainfall-more-likely-due-to-climate-change 

Using the FEH22 rainfall depth-duration-frequency model for that area, 26.3mm is less than a 1-hour, 30-year event; by contrast, a 12-hour, 100-year event would exceed 90mm.

https://www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-05/FEH22_rainfall_depth-duration_frequency_%28DDF%29_model.pdf 

A 90mm rainfall event, with the same impermeable catchment area of 127,500m2, would require a much larger storage capacity of 11,475m3...

When it came to Straitgate Farm, consultants Amec Foster Wheeler, writing Aggregate Industries’ Flood Risk Assessment, modelled for a lesser 1 in 100-yr storm event + 10% climate change, and reckoned that across the 25.61ha (256,100m2) site, a total volume of 19,054m3 was required to attenuate runoff. Dividing the latter by the former implies a 74.4mm rain event was modelled for, or 67.6mm excluding the 10% climate change uplift. Assuming Hillhead, 23 miles away, is prone to the same level of storms as Straitgate, then adding back a +45% climate change allowance, means that the surface water management plan for Hillhead needs to accommodate runoff from a 98mm storm event – or in old money, nearly 4 inches of rain. 

So why BCL Hydro has only modelled for a not-uncommon 1-inch rain event is anybody’s guess. 

Given that there are now a series of questionable conclusions from BCL Hydro – here, here and here – local people would be forgiven for having little faith in whatever surface water management plan eventually emerges for Straitgate Farm.

EDIT 17.1.25 Devon County Council issues Planning Permission for DCC/4399/2024 with conditions

AI seeks to delay Chard Junction Quarry restoration in Dorset AONB – again

Aggregate Industries’ planning application to extend its Chard Junction Quarry – a development that would have caused considerable harm to the Dorset AONB for the sake of a relatively small amount of decorative stone – was refused in September 2021 by Dorset Council, and, after the company appealed the decision, again in October 2022 by the Planning Inspectorate. 

The extant permission WD/D/20/000313 was "limited to the period ending 31 March 2023":

Reason: To safeguard the natural environment and amenity of the local area and to ensure the timely restoration of the site in accordance with Policies SSI (Presumption in favour of sustainable development), RS1 (Restoration, Aftercare and Afteruse of Minerals Development) and DM4 (Protection and Enhancement of Landscape Character and the Countryside) of the Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole Minerals Strategy. 

But that wasn’t enough for Aggregate Industries. 

In February 2023, the company submitted a planning application P/VOC/2023/00946 "seeking a time extension until the 31 December 2024 in order to complete the restoration of Chard Junction Quarry", blaming in part its failure to stick to the existing planning condition on "adverse weather conditions". 

The Officer’s Report explained:  

5.4 … given that permission WD/D/20/000313 lapsed on 31 March 2023, and that application WD/D/19/000451 was refused, for the operator to fulfil its obligation in restoring these areas, they are now proposing to vary the requirements of condition 3 (Duration of the development permitted) of Planning Permission WD/D/20/000313, to extend the end date to 31 December 2024, in order to have further time in which to restore the site. 

The Dorset AONB Team commented: 

Whilst our clear preference would be for the timely completion of restoration in line with the planning consent, we do not feel it appropriate to object to the requested extension of time. We recommend that the Council carefully examine the reasons for a time extension and reach an opinion as to the reasonableness of this in relation to the circumstances. 

Dorset Council duly granted permission for the extension in May 2023. 

But we all know by now that Aggregate Industries rarely does what it says it will. 

Last month, the company submitted yet another planning application P/VOC/2024/06538, requesting yet another extension of time, this time blaming National Grid: 

We are therefore seeking to vary Condition 1 of the Permission to extend the end date for completing restoration of the site to the 31 December 2025. 

Please be assured that the company remain committed to the completion of the restoration of this site and the delay that has caused this application has been due to matters entirely outside of our control.

AI’s water monitoring at Straitgate being undertaken incorrectly at several properties

To win permission to quarry Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries entered into a legal agreement to monitor the private water supplies of surrounding properties for the lifetime of the development. 

Part of this agreement also stipulates that 12 months of chemical analysis of water supplies be performed before any quarrying starts, to produce a baseline so that any potential changes in groundwater quality from future mineral workings can be detected. 

Aggregate Industries’ water consultants BCL Hydro are now nine months into this monitoring period. 

In an email to us last month, the consultants confirmed that all the samples taken for analysis are "untreated groundwater". 

It stands to reason. Chemical analysis is meant to provide an accurate baseline of the natural quality of the groundwater, not a baseline that is masked or altered by treatment systems. 

It now transpires, however, that "untreated groundwater" is not what’s being sampled from at least three of the 19 or so properties being monitored. 

It looks like Aggregate Industries and its consultants have fallen at the first hurdle, before any quarrying has even started. 

The nine months of data collected from these properties is invalid. The owners do not have the protection afforded to them by an accurate 12-month baseline of untreated groundwater data, independent of their treatment process, to evidence any potential future claim for "derogation, contamination or interference" to their supply. 

Devon County Council has been informed.

Another quarry accused of disrupting water supplies

In 2016, we posted Look what happens when a quarry company is accused of polluting a couple's drinking water supply: 

...everything changed and it was clear the spring had been contaminated because the water was coming out brown and dirty...[which] coincided with the operators of the quarry near our home being served with statutory notices for quarrying outside their permitted area

Now, it looks as though it’s happened again elsewhere, allegedly caused this time by Dareduff Hill Quarry in East Ayrshire to a home in East Renfrewshire. 

According to GlasgowLive: 

Ali says part of the planning agreement carried conditions that her private water supply would be protected - but already, she says, it has been affected. 

She said: "It's basically an ancient spring out of the ground, where you won't get any planning that says where it comes from, because nobody knows - but it's been here for as long as this building has been up, for hundreds of years. 

"The water goes naturally into a tank that's in the ground. This farm used to be a dairy farm, so it supplied this whole place with water. And it's never been a drama. I only ran out of water once years ago when we had a big drought. It all works fine, it's dead old-fashioned but I've never wanted to or had to change it. 

"So while this proposal was going on, I had contacted MPs. I contacted Planning and everyone has ignored me, nobody's done anything. On the back of that, both East Renfrewshire Council and East Ayrshire Council are going to get 7p a ton from the aggregate that's taken out of this quarry, so there's money involved for the councils too." 

She added: "They've now started the digging. I wasn't informed about it at all. 

"Part of the concessions that were approved in the planning stage was that the water at this farm [West Carswell Farm] had to be sorted, and that West Carswell was either to be connected to the mains or some other solution. But nothing's happened."

Ali said plumbing experts believe disturbance to the ground from the launch of the quarry works may have put “muck” in the water with the silt clogging old pipes. She added: "There's water in the tank... but there's no water getting to my property."

As we said back in 2016: 

At Straitgate, water supplies for 100 people, 3 farms and Grade I Cadhay would be in the hands of one digger driver. What could possibly go wrong? And - with an extensive catalogue of ignored warnings from local residents going back years - how many nationals would cover the story if it did?

 

Renfrewshire woman devastated as quarry works begin near dream countryside home.https://t.co/zWOHLHnXz1

— Glasgow Live (@Glasgow_Live) December 3, 2024

AI joint venture blames economic slowdown for quarry restoration delay

Wight Building Materials is a joint venture between Eurovia and Aggregate Industries. 

Last week, onthewight reported: 

Restoration work at an Isle of Wight quarry with tens of thousands of tonnes of fill material will continue for two more years following a council decision. 

In justifying its decision for Wight Building Materials’ Hale Manor Quarry, an officer wrote: 

The submitted information states that the downturn in the economy caused by rising interest rates and the cost of living over 2022/23 has caused the slowing rate of restoration for the quarry. Therefore, the restoration scheme cannot be completed by the 2024 deadline. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time that a deadline linked to Aggregate Industries has come and gone. 

In the past, the word deadline meant something: 

a line drawn within or around a prison that a prisoner passes at the risk of being shot 

a line that does not move 

To Aggregate Industries et al., a deadline seems to mean nothing more than a guideline. 

But we mustn’t be too harsh. Aggregate Industries and other mineral companies are clearly feeling the economic pain – as was made perfectly clear to us earlier in the year, when a representative from Aggregate Industries explained why the company intends to mothball Straitgate Farm immediately following implementation of the planning permission.