Monday, 28 April 2025

We’ve fitted some solar panels, crows Holcim UK. What took it so long?

At long last, Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – is fitting solar panels to some of its factory roofs. Bravo. 

Last week, Holcim UK issued a press release celebrating the installation of 464 solar panels on its concrete blocks plant near Cheddar – Somerset sunshine to help power Callow operations – obviously looking for a pat on the back.


But really, why has it taken this energy-hungry, CO2-intensive, polluting company so long to start fitting solar panels to offset its enormous CO2 emissions and enormous environmental footprint? 

It can’t pretend it didn’t know there was a climate crisis. Twenty-five years ago, the company admitted: 
During 2000, Aggregate Industries UK Ltd used over 740 million kWh of energy throughout its production processes. It is estimated that this energy consumption resulted in the release of approximately 224,000,000 Kgs of carbon dioxide.
Although by 2007, the company's CEO at the time seemed to row back, worried that climate change had hijacked the public agenda: 
The public agenda seems almost to have been hijacked by climate change and the CO2 debate. Important as it is, for us the agenda has always been much bigger and includes biodiversity, controlling pollution, waste, water and local nuisance. Sustainability is larger still, bringing in people and products and I believe we need to achieve a better balance in the future.
Since then, the future arrived, and from the early 2010s the UK public has been fitting solar panels on their roofs in their droves. Now, more than 1.5 million households have solar panels. How many of those people issued a press release extolling their green virtues?


The future arrived a while ago too for other UK companies, many of whom have also installed solar panels. In 2011, Adnams Brewery installed 962 solar panel at its distribution centre in Reydon. In the same year, work began on installing 17,000 solar panels at Toyota’s vehicle plant in Derbyshire. In 2013, Sainsbury’s announced it had installed 100,000 solar panels across 210 of its supermarkets. In 2015, Marks & Spencer completed the installation of the UK's largest single roof mounted solar panel array with 24,272 panels at its distribution centre in Castle Donington – enough panels to cover 25 miles if laid end-to-end. Notable achievements, worthy of a press release or two. 

When did Holcim start fitting solar panels? Not until July 2024 did Luke Olly, Head of Decarbonisation at Aggregate Industries UK, announce: 
Completing our first major solar project on one of our biggest sites is a key milestone for Aggregate Industries. 
What was the company doing during the decade that Adnams, Toyota, Sainsbury’s, M&S et al. were covering their rooftops with solar panels? Hoping that climate change would go away? 

What dent will this key milestone make on the site’s energy consumption? 
A total of 944 solar panels have been installed on factory rooftops at the site... [which] can generate more than 415,000 KWh of power per year, equating to 7% of the site’s annual power needs… 
If sustainability truly is at the core of its strategy – as it so often claims – Holcim UK will have to do better than that.
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As Just Stop Oil disbands could climate activism turn uglier?


Today, the Guardian suggests future movements are likely to go underground:
You’re not going to see people prepared to put themselves out of action by sitting in a jail cell for years, when they believe we don’t have much time left. 
We’ve started seeing trains of coal being set on fire, arson attacks on cement factories, full-on riots between environmental protesters and the police. 
I think we’ve got a long way to go in terms of how bad things can get but in the next few years I think we’ll look back and what JSO did, blocking roads and throwing washable paint onto buildings, will seem mild.
Arson attacks on cement factories? Apparently so. In 2024, climate activists set fire to a cement factory in Berlin: 
Their action was, as they indicated, inspired by previous attacks by colleagues from France, Belgium and Switzerland who sabotaged concrete factories. According to the radicals from ‘Switch Off!’ concrete production is ‘totally deadly for the climate’ and generates more carbon dioxide than all air traffic.
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What happens when you build a city from wood?

... one study found that building with wood instead of concrete and steel in 80% of new buildings would help offset half of Europe’s construction industry emissions.
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Friday, 18 April 2025

Nature doesn't have a voice – but the public does

Holcim UK is in a bind with its proposed road modifications for Birdcage Lane. The planned modifications for the lane – required to facilitate access to the permitted quarry at Straitgate Farm for up to 200 HGV movements a day – are restricted by two majestic oaks, both protected by a Tree Preservation Order. 
The trees contribute to the amenity and character of the area and they are considered under threat from development and the impact of heavy machinery and vehicles.
Last August, we posted that almost 10 years on, Aggregate Industries is still struggling to produce a workable site access plan. Eight months further on, Devon County Council has confirmed that the company – now rebadged Holcim UK – has still not submitted the requested set of revised plans. 

Should the company be at all minded to allow these plans to risk harming the two notable oaks, sitting next to the lane and either side of its proposed entrance, it might consider the national fury that Toby Carvery rightfully received this week after felling a 500-year-old oak in Whitewebbs Park – see below. 

Toby Carvery, owned by Mitchells & Butlers, is now threatened with legal action from Enfield Council: 
The council had reported Toby Carvery to the Metropolitan police, but officers decided to take no further action as there was no preservation order on the tree. 
The Woodland Trust’s senior conservation adviser for trees, is quoted as saying: 
This is the most shocking fell I think I’ve ever seen in more than a decade working with ancient trees. In my view, and the view of many others, this is ecologically much more significant than the Sycamore Gap – and certainly a more irreplaceable tree. 

Ancient oaks are particularly rich in biodiversity, with habitats that take centuries to develop. They simply can’t be replaced by younger trees and can’t be replaced quickly.

Some of the biodiversity associated with ancient trees, like the Whitewebbs oak, is among the most threatened in Europe. 
Mitchells & Butlers apologised, and admitted "we need to tighten our protocols". No shit, Sherlock. 

The Whitewebbs oak had no tree preservation order. The two oaks at risk on Birdcage Lane do. The Woodland Trust says: 
Failure to obtain permission before carrying out work on a protected tree can result in prosecution, with fines of up to £20,000 in a magistrates’ court. Serious cases may be taken to trial in the crown court and offenders could face an unlimited fine if convicted.
Toby Carvery will no doubt be licking its wounds now, asking itself – too late of course – whether its PR disaster, and the subsequent damage to its corporate image and bottom line, was worth it. Reputations, as the company has found out, can be trashed overnight. 

Toby Carvery clearly missed the memo on corporate responsibility – in other words, responsibility for the landscape occupied, the heritage inherited and the communities served. Corporate responsibility does not stop at recycling bins and plant-based menus, or, for that matter, quarry liaison meetings and Quarry Keep Out signs. When companies brag about sustainability, community ties and green values – actions matter. The public has demonstrated that it won’t sit quietly by whilst corporates vandalise our natural history. Nature doesn't have a voice – but the public does. 

Of course, Holcim UK wouldn’t dream of harming two veteran oaks trees, would it? Because, you cannot preach sustainability whilst cutting down history.

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Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Does Holcim UK really want to engage with local communities?

On the subject of Local Communities, Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – claims: 
We’re a business with roots in neighbourhoods across the UK. We’re proud of the active contribution we make to the economic well-being of our communities. We also understand that we need to listen to the communities where we operate, and do what’s right for them to create positive social impacts. 
In connection with its recent rebranding, the company produced a positioning statement: Making Sustainable Construction A Reality. The document claims: 
We recognise that active community engagement is critical for managing our impact and regularly engage with resident groups to gauge their opinion.
Anna Baker, Holcim UK's Sustainability Director, is quoted as saying: 
...we know that true value comes from listening to our neighbours and understanding what matters most to them. Working this way, we can succeed on all fronts without negatively impacting those closest to our sites.
Gauge opinion, understand the need to listen, etc, etc. Presumably the company wants to hear both sides of the argument – from both supporters and critics – otherwise what’s the point? 

Holcim UK has given up posting on X, formerly Twitter – and why not, you might ask – but the company apparently still uses the platform "to answer any questions" – any question, that is, apart from ones from this corner of East Devon. 

Aggregate Industries blocked Straitgate Action Group on Twitter in 2018 – proof that we rattled the giant in some way. When the world’s biggest cement company blocks a tiny action group, you know you’re doing something right. At the time, we wrote: 
People will no doubt think that we must have bombarded AI with thousands of tweets to provoke such action. And if not, why not? 

Looking back though, we’re disappointed to find that we directed only 13 tweets to @AggregateUK in 2018, and just 9 in 2017. We really should have been trying harder! 

Plainly though, that was 22 tweets too many for AI and its social media experts; AI no longer wants to hear anything else from this group, thank you very much.
Since then the company has won permission to quarry Straitgate Farm; the fight should be over. 

Given all the above, you might think that Holcim UK would now be prepared to listen to this community, as it seeks to become part of the neighbourhood in Ottery St Mary. 

But more than six years on, we are still persona non grata and – at least on X – "blocked from engaging with them". 

New name, same company.

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‘Is legal action the only way to save the planet?’

A vast number of actors are responsible for emissions, making it hard to establish legal responsibility, and often the worst harms occur in a different continent to the worst emissions. But in the last decade, a series of court cases around the world have sought to change the legal status quo. “It’s been a huge shift,” said Adam Weiss, chief programmes and impact officer at ClientEarth, an environmental law charity that has spearheaded this approach. “Judges now see the environmental issues we’re facing as existential, and have allowed the interpretation of human rights law to shift to grasp that.”
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Wednesday, 9 April 2025

UK investigating fraud claims alleging ‘green’ HVO diesel contains virgin palm oil

The wonder fuel that Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) has pledged to use to extract and haul material from Straitgate is in trouble. 

We have posted about HVO or hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel before. Condition 22 of Holcim UK’s planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm says: 
Prior to the export of any sand or gravel from the site, a scheme which ensures that all heavy goods vehicles entering and leaving the site, together with all plant and equipment located within the site, use hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel shall be submitted to and approved in writing by the Mineral Planning Authority. The scheme shall include details of how the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil fuel will be monitored to secure compliance with this condition. All heavy goods vehicles and plant shall be used in accordance with the approved scheme. 
Aggregate Industries’ magical solution to its unsustainable 2.5 million mile haulage scheme for Straitgate Farm – a result of processing the as-dug sand and gravel 23 miles away at Hillhead near Uffculme – is to rely on hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, despite, as of early 2024, HVO being around 40 pence per litre more expensive than normal diesel... 

The concern must be that if every corporate is now going to be greenwashing their pollution away with the delights of HVO, where on earth will all the used cooking oil come from? And how many millions more acres of rainforest will have to be cleared to replace it? 
 ... industry whistleblowers told the BBC they believe large amounts of these materials are not waste but instead are virgin palm oil, which is being fraudulently relabelled. 

And data analysed by the BBC and shared with the UK's Department for Transport casts further doubt on one of the key ingredients in HVO, a material called palm sludge waste. 

Europe used more of this waste in HVO and other biofuels in 2023 than it is thought possible for the world to produce. 

UK consumption rocketed from 8 million litres in 2019 to about 699 million litres in 2024, according to provisional government figures. 

Its green credentials rely heavily on the assumption that it is made from waste sources, particularly used cooking oil or the waste sludge from palm oil production. 

But industry whistle-blowers have told the BBC that they believe virgin palm oil and other non-waste materials are often being used instead... 

"It's a very easy game," said Dr Christian Bickert, a German farmer and editor with experience in biofuels, who believes that much of the HVO made with these waste products is "fake". 

"Chemically, the sludge and the pure palm oil are absolutely the same because they come from the same plant, and also from the same production facilities in Indonesia," he told BBC News. 

"There's no paper which proves [the fraud], no paper at all, but the figures tell a clear story." 
Construction company Balfour Beatty has a policy of not using the fuel, citing sustainability concerns:
"We just are not able to get any level of visibility over the supply chain of HVO that would give us that level of assurance that this is truly a sustainable product," Balfour Beatty's Jo Gilroy told BBC News.
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Saturday, 5 April 2025

Cumbrian coal mine planning application withdrawn

Plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria – subject of these previous posts – are dead:

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UK construction output levels continue to fall

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Friday, 4 April 2025

Quarry decision ‘failed to assess climate effects’

Plans to build a quarry are in doubt after a council conceded to a legal challenge over how it assessed its possible impact on the environment.
Last year, Northumberland County Council approved a proposal to excavate dolerite - used to produce concrete - near Kirkwhelpington, which would see almost three million tonnes of material extracted over 20 years. 

Law firm Leigh Day said the authority agreed to concede to a claim it "failed to assess the likely climate effects of the development" relating to soil disturbance, meaning the grant of planning permission could be quashed. 

Campaigner John Winslow, represented by Leigh Day and supported by the Environmental Law Foundation, challenged the application in February. 

As a result, the council told Leigh Day it would concede that it did not comply with its obligations under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 by failing to assess the likely climate effects of the application. 

Ricardo Gama, from Leigh Day, said: "The council will now need to assess those impacts and reconsider its decision to grant planning permission."  
We help the voice of ordinary people and communities to be heard on matters affecting the environment in which they live. 

We exist primarily to help socially and economically disadvantaged communities which want to address their concerns, but lack the resources or information to do so. 
In relation to the Kirkwhelpington proposal, the charity writes: 
ELF had a victory in Northumberland, where an application was made for a 28-hectare aggregate quarry which proposed to extract 2.8 million tonnes of dolerite on a site of high ecological importance. The proposal site has a complex mosaic of habitats comprised of purple moor grass and rush pasture and lowland acid grassland, which are habitats of principal importance under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. It is also home to grassland fungi including waxcaps, which are globally endangered and particularly vulnerable to physical disturbance at the surface. White-clawed crayfish, which are a species of principal importance and are also globally endangered, are present in the nearby River Wansbeck to which the Site drains. The Wansbeck is one of their last strongholds, containing a population of international importance. 

Plantlife and Buglife, two highly respected national conservation charities, submitted objections to the development. When assessing the development, Plantlife cited research estimating that acid grassland can hold 90 tonnes of soil carbon per hectare, which is sensitive to land use change. This carbon had the potential to be released into the atmosphere during the course of development from soil disturbance, and that these carbon emissions had not been assessed in the Environmental Impact Assessment. 

Despite these major environmental impacts, Northumberland County Council formally granted permission to the development at the beginning of February. With the help of Jessica Allen of No.5 Chambers, ELF sent a Pre-Action Protocol letter to Northumberland County Council which, in particular, pointed out that the failure to assess the climate effects of the development was an error in law. This is a point that has been made particularly salient following the landmark case of Finch last year. The Council conceded that they had erred in law on this basis, and agreed to enter into a consent order to quash the decision. Preventing the quarry development was a massive win for the environment and, thanks to Jessica’s assistance, our enquirer was able to achieve justice without having to go through the long, arduous and expensive litigation process.
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Holcim UK forced to scale back Uttoxeter quarry plan

Three years ago, Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) won permission to extend an East Staffordshire sand and gravel quarry. The company is now having to scale back its ambitions after it failed to secure ownership of all the land forming the application site. 

Does the company make a habit of submitting applications for land over which it has no rights? In 2016, Aggregate Industries, as it was then called, was forced to withdraw its application for Straitgate Farm, after it became clear that it did not have the necessary rights over third-party land to implement its site access plans. In 2020, the company submitted a planning application for a cattle crossing to facilitate its plans for Straitgate. This application also relied on third party land, and expired unimplemented three years later.

In Staffordshire, the county council approved the northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry in 2022, subject to conditions, but the company has now lodged an amended scheme. The Officer’s Report reads: 
1. On 4 August 2022, the County Council’s Planning Committee resolved to permit an application for a northern extension to Uttoxeter Quarry... 

2. In accordance with the Planning Committee’s resolution, a Section 106 legal agreement is required to be completed prior to issuing the planning permission; and all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site are required to sign the agreement. 

3. The applicant is not able to secure an interest in all the land forming the application site and therefore, not “all other persons with a relevant interest in the land forming the application site” are available to sign the Section 106... 

4. The effect of the applicant not being able to secure an interest in all the land which would be subject of the planning permission principally means that only the sand and gravel within the southern part of the extension area can be extracted by the applicant... 

5. The proposed partial implementation of the approved proposals would result in a reduced extraction area enabling 674,000 tonnes of sand and gravel to be won and worked over a period of approximately 20 months. This reduction of the extent of mineral operations would amount to a loss of 318,000 tonnes of sand and gravel. 
Councillor Philip Hudson, said: "I think local people will be very pleased with what we’ve heard today because a lot of the objections before were about the amount of lorries coming out onto the B5030."
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Tuesday, 1 April 2025

Holcim UK’s Straitgate updates for February and March – still awaited

We’re still waiting for February’s update from Holcim UK (formerly Aggregate Industries) in relation to implementing its permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – monthly updates the company agreed to provide to us back in 2023.

In the absence of any news from the company since last September, and with now just 9 months to go before its permission expires, we can report that there is still no activity on site, and monitoring of boreholes and private water supplies – supposed to be performed monthly, and a requirement of the UU legal agreement – has not been undertaken since January. 

Any update that the company deigns to supply us for March will be posted below.
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