Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Developers routinely ignore nature commitments – study shows

Developers often promise environmentally-friendly features to gain planning approval, but a recent study shows these commitments are routinely ignored once permission is granted. The lack of enforcement by under-resourced planning authorities allows this pattern to continue unchecked.

A study led by the University of Sheffield’s School of Planning and commissioned by the wildlife charity Wild Justice, examined 42 developments granted planning permission after 2012. The research spanned nearly 6,000 homes and more than 291 hectares of land across five local planning authorities. 

The team searched for 4,654 trees and 868 bird and bat boxes. They surveyed many hectares of what were promised to be wildflower grasslands, ponds, and hedgerows. They found that only 53% of the ecological features that had been a condition of planning permission were present. When they excluded newly planted trees, this fell to just 34%. 

Key findings include:  
* 39% of trees identified in planting plans were either missing or dead 
* 48% of native hedges that should have been planted were missing 
* 75% of bird and bat boxes were not installed 
* 83% of hedgehog highways were absent 
* None of the promised invertebrate boxes were installed. 

The study highlights a lack of monitoring and enforcement due to under-resourced enforcement teams, unable or lacking the skills to monitor the ecology of new developments. 

A summary of the research findings has been published by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) to expose the failings. RTPI’s own research has shown that 80% of planning enforcement officers believe there are insufficient staff to manage the workload, and 41% of local authorities lack the ecological expertise necessary to implement biodiversity net gain policy (BNG) effectively…
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Friday, 9 May 2025

Holcim chair to pocket ‘$58 million’ – whilst Holcim UK concrete plant faces closure


Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – is clearly one of them. The Chryston asphalt and concrete plant in North Lanarkshire is now threatened by closure with the loss of 32 jobs.

GMB Scotland has written to Kate Forbes, the economy secretary and deputy first minister, warning the proposed closure of the Aggregate Industries site, near Glasgow, has come without warning or justification

Meanwhile, in the rarefied world of corporate excess: 

May 8 (Reuters) - Proxy advisor Ethos has called on Holcim shareholders to reject the company's remuneration proposals, saying Chairman Jan Jenisch's estimated 48 million Swiss franc ($58 million) compensation realised in 2024 would make him the highest-paid manager among Swiss blue-chip companies. Ethos calculated the figure for realised compensation for Jenisch, a former CEO of the cement maker, based on the performance of share options he received in 2020. 

 "Jan Jenisch's variable remuneration for 2024, which is 25 times his base salary as CEO, is unacceptable," said Vincent Kaufmann, CEO of the Ethos Foundation, calling on Holcim's board to abolish the option plan. 

Holcim, when asked for comment by Reuters, said Ethos' framing of Jenisch's remuneration was misleading. "The value of this option scheme has been misrepresented by Ethos as it reflects a five-year rolling program, reflecting record performance over a 5-year period, and is not an annual remuneration," a Holcim spokesperson said.
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Tuesday, 6 May 2025

Holcim UK trials autonomous technology in Devon. What will be the human cost?

Mineral operators applying to extend or establish a new quarry will typically emphasise the number of jobs they will preserve or create, hoping to influence councillors on planning committees. 

Some companies even go to the press with tales of jobs that would be lost if quarry plans don't go ahead. In 2015, for instance, the headline East Devon quarry block ‘will put jobs at risk’ appeared locally:
THE livelihoods of East Devon quarry employees will be at risk if proposals for a 100-acre quarry on the outskirts of Ottery St Mary do not go ahead. 

Officials from Aggregate Industries, which runs quarries at Blackhill on Woodbury Common, and Venn Ottery, have confirmed that this is the reality if they cannot proceed with their plans to quarry Straitgate Farm near Daisymount roundabout. 

It is not clear exactly how many jobs could be affected but it is thought to be less than 10.
The reality was indeed less than 10. In the supporting statement for its planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm, Aggregate Industries – now Holcim UK – confirmed: 
3.5.8 The number of full time employees at the site would be three. 
It’s a small number, although still exaggerated because: 
3.5.2 Mineral working would be carried out on a campaign basis, comprising two or three working periods or campaigns, with each campaign lasting five to seven weeks. 
Nevertheless, the number of jobs in the UK quarrying industry has been declining for decades. Back in 2012 we posted: 
Even over the last 10 years there has been a dramatic fall in employee numbers in sand and gravel, with the UK Minerals Yearbook reporting over 8000 employees in 2001, but under 3000 in 2010. The HSE says the "industry has difficulty attracting and recruiting staff" and "anecdotal evidence suggests an ageing workforce".
It’s not clear where the sand and gravel employment numbers have gone in recent years, although they are unlikely to have increased, judging by these ONS numbers. 


In 2019, the ONS estimated that 57% of jobs in the "quarry workers and related operatives" sector were at risk from automation.

We first posted about autonomous vehicles in 2018, when they were being trialled at a Swedish quarry. 

Last year, autonomous vehicles were trialled in Devon, when Sibelco hosted the UK’s first driverless dump truck at its china clay quarry near Plymouth. 

Last week, Holcim UK announced that it had also chosen Devon to trial autonomous technology, again at a china clay quarry processing secondary aggregates near Plymouth.

HOLCIM UK have taken part in a trial utilizing AI-powered autonomous technology to operate an excavator. The trial, which took place at the company’s Lee Moor sand and gravel quarry [sic], near Plymouth, Devon, involved a 23-tonne Develon crawler excavator fitted with autonomous technology from Swiss start-up Gravis Robotics. 

Once set-up and testing had taken place, the machine was tasked with feeding the hopper of a screener with sand and gravel at target performance rate of 100 cycles per hour. During two days of testing the machine was able to average 133 cycles per hour, shifting 1,500 tonnes of material daily with 99% accuracy and minimal spillage. 
Paul Mitchinson, head of mobile plant at Holcim UK, was quoted as saying: 
"We were excited to be able to take part in the trial at one of our quarries and see how autonomous technology could work and be successfully integrated into day-to-day operations.

"The introduction of this type of technology in our industry could lead to greater productivity through increased output and consistency, improved safety on site, and improved sustainability through optimizing the performance of large plant equipment.

"As a company, we are continuously seeking to innovate and to improve our ways of working in order to enhance productivity. This includes exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can support what we do to help us be more efficient." 
For greater productivity and efficiency – read fewer jobs. 

Holcim has had its sights on autonomous technology for some time.


Last month, it was announced that Holcim had signed "a ground-breaking agreement".
    
HDX and Gravis Robotics are collaborating to implement jointly developed autonomous technology using Develon’s equipment across Holcim’s operations, with a particular focus on quarry environments including: 

* Truck loading of blasted rock for efficient material transport 

* Feeding hoppers of mobile crushers and screeners with extracted materials 

* Confined material handling at asphalt and aggregate plants 

* Stockyard management, optimizing material flow and storage. 

Holcim’s quarrying and processing sites combined with their operational expertise provides the consortium with a global platform that can be used to enable the integration of autonomous heavy construction equipment. 

Through the adoption of autonomous machinery, Holcim want to realize increased productivity through increased output and consistency, increased safety by reducing the number of people on site…
Quarry operatives at Holcim UK, and planning committees, be warned.
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Thursday, 1 May 2025

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

Yes, you guessed it. Still no news. 

Holcim UK – formerly Aggregate Industries – has, for the third month running, not provided any update in relation to implementing its planning permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – monthly updates the company agreed to provide to us back in 2023. 

It’s obviously too much to hope that Holcim UK – part of the world’s largest cement conglomerate – would have the decency to keep local people informed of its plans, when something as damaging as a million-tonne sand and gravel quarry is about to land on their doorstep. 

Holcim UK plainly couldn’t care less, whatever its empty words proclaim: 
We recognise that active community engagement is critical for managing our impact...
Anyway, there is still no activity on site, and the monthly monitoring of boreholes and private water supplies – a requirement of the UU legal agreement – has not been undertaken since January.  

In fact, there has been no meaningful news from the company since last September, and Holcim UK now has just 8 months before its permission expires. 

As before, any update the company bothers to supply us will be posted below.
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