Friday, 2 February 2024

Two accidents today on the B3174 Exeter Road by Straitgate Farm

Aggregate Industries’ permitted plans to quarry Straitgate Farm will put another 200 HGV movements a day on this road. The incidents occurred in the same location as the cattle crossing, required as part of the scheme.
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Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for January

Aggregate Industries provided the following update this week in relation to implementing its permission to quarry Straitgate Farm: 
We have now completed our initial visits to the owners of the private water supplies who are part of the monitoring scheme and confirm that it is our intention to start the 12 month of pre-commencement baseline monitoring in April this year. To confirm numbers we will be monitoring at 20 properties (note as previously this does not include Straitgate farm but we will be monitoring there). The reduction in number from that which I gave you previously is due to some properties not actually having a private water supply and also some that share the same supply. 

Regarding the boreholes on the Straitgate site itself there are 17 of those and please note that this number does not include PZ10 as that is included in the private water supply number given above.
You would think Aggregate Industries would know by now, but there are in fact 15 boreholes on the Straitgate site itself – PZ07, PZ08 and PZ10 are on third party land.

EDIT 8.2.24 

In answer to a subsequent request to confirm which springs and streams will also be included in the monitoring scheme, Aggregate Industries replied: 
I can confirm that this is something we are looking at as part of the monitoring scheme and I will be able to confirm locations in due course.
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Monday, 29 January 2024

Aggregate Industries’ parent Holcim announces break-up plan and new CEO

The Swiss cement giant Holcim plans to spin off its North American business and list it in the US, as it seeks to unlock value and speed up growth for the unit. 

The Zug-based group also announced that the head of its European business, Miljan Gutovic, would take over as group chief executive from May. Outgoing chief Jan Jenisch will remain chair and lead the planned break-up… 

Makers of building materials such as Holcim have fallen out of favour with more climate-conscious investors in recent years, because of the carbon footprint of products such as cement and concrete. Holcim has sought to shift its business towards greener construction in recent years, and emphasised its role in "decarbonising building". 

Holcim will remain listed in Switzerland after the spin-off, with a presence across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
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Double blow for construction industry

According to the Construction Products Association (CPA) Winter Forecasts, published today, construction output is forecast to fall by 2.1% this year... 

Six months ago the CPA was forecasting 0.7% growth for UK construction output in 2024. Three months ago, it changed this to a 0.3% contraction. That it is now forecasting a 2.1% contraction represents a significant further deterioration in sentiment.

 

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Thursday, 25 January 2024

AI’s ponding problems at Hillhead worsen – attracting ducks & gulls too











Aggregate Industries’ plans for Straitgate Farm positively encourage the creation of water bodies – for surface water management and restoration. However, for Airport Safeguarding reasons, the Planning Inspectors only granted permission to quarry Straitgate on the condition that: 
25. No water body shall be created within the site other than the approved weigh bridge lagoon.  
As we posted a year ago: 
This condition... is clear and unambiguous. It is not limited by the size or duration of any water body – large or small, permanent or temporary.  

In June last year, we posted – here and here – about the ponding problems Aggregate Industries has suffered at Houndaller quarry at Hillhead, near Uffculme, where the company is extracting the same type of sand and gravel available at Straitgate. 

What’s the scale of the problem? Devon County Council's monitoring report for Hillhead Quarry in 2022 provided this photo:
The latest monitoring report for the site issued this week reveals that the ponding problems remain ongoing and are slowing down restoration: 
4.16 ...The water is ponding in this Phase and the operator would like to direct this water to Houndaller Pond, north of the farmhouse, in order to complete restoration. Therefore, a non-material amendment was submitted in order to alter the phasing of working. The has resulted in the operator entering the western end of Phase 8 to allow water to move from Phase 6, into Phase 7 and 8 temporarily whilst restoration is under way. Originally, working in Phase 8 was to commence at the eastern end. Alterations to allow water to enter Houndaller Pond will need to be subject to a full application. 

4.17 Despite the ponding, work has begun on restoring Phase 6 at the eastern end to the final restoration levels. It is anticipated this will be completed in 2025, however, it is understood the ponding is slowing this down... 
The report didn't say if the ponding problem had worsened. However, photos taken this week, above and below, show that it has:
Furthermore, the water is attracting ducks and gulls – the sort of species that would be particularly hazardous at Straitgate, being just 200m below the landing approach for Exeter Airport.

Even without its plans that encourage water bodies at Straitgate, Aggregate Industries’ problems at Hillhead – and the ponding at its other sand and gravel sites in Devon for that matter – demonstrate the company hasn’t a ghost of a chance of complying with condition 25 at Straitgate.
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HVO – where on earth will all the used cooking oil come from?

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. 

Condition 22 of the planning permission to quarry the 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. 
In 2022, we posted HVO – AI’s answer to the Straitgate sustainability issue – gets bad press and questioned how the company's HVO scheme would work in practice: 
How this would be done is anybody’s guess, since the company does not own its own fleet of trucks and HVO is not available on garage forecourts – as Devon County Council pointed out. How this would be monitored and policed is another issue – as the Council also acknowledged. 
We also posted that HVO is blamed for indirectly "encouraging more deforestation in Southeast Asia" with some research claiming it’s "three times worse for the climate than regular diesel when indirect emissions from changes in the use of land are accounted for". How so? HVO is primarily made from used cooking oils, UCO, which is used in the production of animal feed. Increased demand for UCO will lead to increasing use of palm oil as a replacement, therefore increasing deforestation. Across Europe, imports account for more than half of the UCO that's made into fuel. According to this study, there's no way to prove these imports are sustainable: 
China supplies over a third (34%) of Europe’s UCO imports while almost a fifth (19%) comes from major palm oil producers Malaysia and Indonesia combined. Within a decade the volume Europe needs could double to 6 million tonnes as EU countries strive to meet targets for renewable fuels in transport, the study finds. This in turn could trigger palm oil being used to replace cooking oil in exporting countries while also incentivising fraud (mixing virgin oil).
HVO is fully compatible with petroleum diesel and can also be upgraded for use as ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel’ (SAF). 
According to Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, sustainable aviation fuels are a con.

They’re a wheeze. Unless governments get in behind the production and sourcing of sustainable aviation fuels – and they’re only going to come from, ultimately, the oil majors, the only ones who are going to make them – I don’t see where we will get the supply in the volumes we need. You want everybody running around collecting fucking cooking oil? There isn’t enough cooking oil in the world to power more than one day’s aviation. 
Whilst Ryanair has deals with oil majors for up to 9.5% of its fuel needs in SAF by 2030, O’Leary said: 
But we have no idea that they’ll be able to make those kinds of volumes. 
Whilst capacity for HVO is forecast to double by 2028, demand is set to outstrip supply. 

Aggregate Industries is new to the HVO scene. In June last year, the company made a big song and dance about a single HVO-fuelled cement tanker being a "UK biofuel first". For Straitgate, it is conditioned, as pointed out above, that all the trucks, and all the plant and equipment located within the site, will need to use HVO.
 

At our Bardon Hill Quarry we are replacing diesel with HVO on equipment such as generators, compressors and crushing and screening plant. All of our HVO is traceable to source under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification Scheme, does not result in any deforestation and will save an estimated 3,301 tonnes of CO2e at Bardon Hill. The savings from this, together with our suspended conveyor system saves enough carbon annually equivalent to driving a car 26,000 miles. 
Which is all very commendable – albeit the 26k miles is insignificant compared with the company’s HGV haulage plan for Straitgate. But whilst it may be possible to claim that the HVO used by AI does not directly cause deforestation, proving it does not indirectly cause it, proving that the UCO used in making its HVO is not causing more palm oil to be grown elsewhere as a replacement, is another matter. 

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? 

Almuth Ernsting of NGO Biofuelwatch warns: 
We are deeply concerned that HVO is being used and promoted in ever more sectors, from aviation fuels to cars and now as a heating fuel, too. While a limited amount of HVO can be made from genuine waste products such as used cooking oil, such waste products are in very short supply and come nowhere near meeting current HVO demand... EU and UK biofuel sustainability and greenhouse gas standards still permit biofuels from palm oil and soy to count towards renewable energy targets, and they are based on a flawed greenhouse gas methodology which ignores the greatest source of emissions – indirect land use change.
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Another part of Aggregate Industries accused of breaching planning controls

In Devon, Aggregate Industries has a history of breaching planning conditions – as we have frequently posted about, most recently here. 

Last year, Aggregate Industries acquired Sivyer Logistics, "a leading handler of construction and demolition waste (CDW) materials to the London construction industry." Dragan Maksimovic, Aggregate Industries’ latest CEO, crowed: 
Sivyer Logistics is an impressive business that has multiple synergies with our own…
Residents local to Morden Wharf in Greenwich seem far from impressed with Sivyer, claiming the company has "a reputation for flouting planning conditions".

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MPA urges next Government to streamline planning

The country is in a mess, but the Mineral Products Association, the trade body representing Aggregate Industries et al., is calling on the next government to spare some time for minerals, and streamline the planning process to make it easier for operators to trash our green and pleasant land, lamenting: 
Planning is hugely onerous for quarry operators putting pressure on the availability of resources. For example, for every 100 tonnes of sand and gravel extracted for use in UK construction, permission is granted for just 62 tonnes of new reserves – an unsustainable replenishment rate. The availability and supply of domestic mineral resources must not be assumed. Streamlining the planning system for minerals will be essential in the next Parliament, especially if parties include ambitious housing targets and infrastructure commitments in their manifestos.
The problem with that old chestnut, the unsustainable replenishment rate argument, is that the situation has been the same for years, yet we don’t hear builders crying that they’ve run out of sand or gravel. 

According to BGS figures, during the 10 year period from 1995 to 2004, 27% of sales of sand and gravel in England were not replaced by new permissions.
Why has construction not collapsed between then and now? Because sales of primary or virgin sand and gravel are in decline, and have been so for years – as the figures for Devon bear out, where annual sales are less than a third of what they were in 1990.

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Government commits to more timber construction


Investing in timber is investing in growth and levelling up. The built environment is responsible for a huge proportion of UK carbon emissions, and using home-grown timber in construction is key to reducing emissions.
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Cemex UK trial use of up to 100% recycled aggregates


Mike Higgins, Cemex’s national technical manager for UK research and development, commented: 
Reusing recycled products in our materials where possible not only reduces waste, it helps to preserve our aggregates reserves and protects our business in the long term.
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‘Companies regularly set ambitious climate goals... that often quietly fizzle away’


While companies often gain positive media attention by trumpeting plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, many are failing to reach their climate goals, and the media rarely picks it up. There is little accountability and transparency on the outcomes of these goals, where various stakeholders, like investors and rating agencies that measure environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk, do not penalize firms for missing these targets
Once upon a time, Aggregate Industries trumpeted ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2018, we posted The CO2 emissions that AI ‘forgot’ in 2016 and wrote: ...
we've heard about establishing baselines before – in 2012, 2008, 2003 – and the company has consistently failed to achieve any progress against them. Let's look, for example, at how AI fared against its 2012 baseline: 
2013: "Absolute process carbon emissions have increased against the 2012 baseline" 
2014: "Absolute carbon process emissions continue to rise and are now 13% higher than the baseline year" 
2015: "Absolute process carbon emissions continue to rise and are 20% above the 2012 baseline" 
2016: No mention of baselines 
AI has talked about reducing its CO2 emissions for more than 15 years, and has achieved exactly the reverse. 
Since then, Aggregate Industries has given up reporting its CO2 figures. In 1999, the company reported 228,267 tonnes of CO2. In 2019, in the post Climate emergency? Not at Aggregate Industries. CO2 emissions increase again, we estimated the company was emitting more than 5x that amount – somewhere in the region of 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 each year. 

Aggregate Industries is part of cement conglomerate Holcim. Last year, the company claimed that for 2022, "we delivered on all our net-zero levers", and that for 2023: 
We are accelerating our net-zero journey to decarbonize Holcim. Taking a science-driven approach, we upgraded our climate targets to align them with the 1.5°C framework and validated them with the Science Based Targets initiative
Bravo. But who's checking whether any of these targets are achieved?

Perhaps these Indonesians will. As previously posted, they are taking legal action against Holcim.

 


ECCHR, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, claims Holcim is "among the top 50 largest CO2 emitters in the world", and that its climate strategy is "Too little – too late": 
Climate change is happening. The clock is ticking. The global consensus is that global warming must not go beyond 1.5°C. Yet, to stand a chance of achieving this 1.5°C limit, the remaining carbon budget must be distributed fairly among all actors. Currently, the global cement industry contributes up to 8% of the global annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, since the production of cement is extremely CO2 intensive. The Swiss-based cement group Holcim Ltd. is the biggest player within the cement and concrete industry, and among the top 50 largest CO2 emitters in the world. Since 1950, Holcim has emitted over 7 billion tonnes of CO2, which accounts for 0.42% of all global industrial CO2 emissions, or twice as many emissions as produced by the whole of Switzerland during the same period. Holcim has published a climate strategy which includes the ambition to become a net zero corporation by 2050. However, as this report shows, Holcim’s climate targets and business strategy are not in line with the 1.5°C limit and are therefore further exacerbating the climate crisis. 

This report looks at Holcim’s past, current and future climate impact through assessing its past and present emissions, as well as its future emission reduction plans. It explains that Holcim has largely contributed to the climate crisis due to its enormous historical emissions. The corporation’s 2021 emissions still account for three times the annual emissions of Switzerland and have risen in recent years. The report concludes that Holcim’s emission reduction targets are incompatible with the 1.5°C limit. According to the latest climate science, to stand a 50% chance of achieving the 1.5°C limit with no or limited overshoot, absolute emission reductions of 43% until 2030, 69% until 2040 and 84% until 2050 from a 2019 base year are required.
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DCC approves Tungsten West secondary aggregates plans for Hemerdon Mine

Last month, Devon County Council approved Tungsten West’s secondary aggregates plans for Hemerdon Mine, plans that were last posted about here. 

Tungsten West’s planning application was: 
Variation of Condition 19 of planning permission 9/42/49/0542/85/3 (DCC/3823/2015) (dated 16 February 2017) to remove weekly and annual tonnage caps on the export of secondary aggregates and to amend the condition to introduce restrictions on hours of export and prohibit exports at the weekend and on bank holidays, Hemerdon Mine, Plympton  
The Officer's Report can be found here. 

Under Need and Market Considerations, the Council made the case that: 
7.10 The Devon Minerals Planning Monitoring Report 2021 (February 2023) reports that the MPA are underdelivering on their objective to have a 20% proportion of total sales of land won and secondary aggregates within wider Devon accounted for by secondary aggregates, with the latest figure stated as 17.7%. 
The Devon Minerals Planning Monitoring Report 2021 can be found here, and here. 

Later in December, Tungsten West announced a £1.8m lifeline, and then a £9.1m loss.
 
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Number of construction companies in critical distress jumps by a third

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More mining legacies

The issue of what to do about Wales’s 2,500 disused coal tips is back on the political agenda after the Labour-led Welsh government published maps pinpointing 350 situated close to homes and communities that it fears could put people at risk in the event of a landslip. 

The Plaid Cymru Senedd member for South Wales East, Delyth Jewell, who speaks for the party on energy and the environment, said extreme weather caused by the climate emergency was making the tips more unstable. 

She said: “Whilst the profits from this black gold overwhelmingly were shipped away from Wales, our communities were left with the dust that choked miners’ lungs, and the waste that littered the landscape. Responsibility for this clean-up should squarely rest on Westminster’s shoulders. This is far more than a safety issue: it is a matter of historical, social and climate justice.” 
Further afield:
 
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Wednesday, 17 January 2024

How far do tree roots extend?

The Woodland Trust says oak trees are among the most loved trees in Britain, can live to over 1,000 years old, and have enormous value for our flora and fauna – supporting 2,300 species, with 326 species depending on the tree for survival, and 229 species rarely found on any other tree. 

Specifically on their roots, the Woodland Trust says: 
Oak roots are usually quite shallow, with most in the top 30cm of soil, and extend well beyond the tree's crown. The root system relies on a complex network of fungi to gather more nutrients beyond the tree's roots. 

But how far beyond a tree's crown do roots extend? 

According to the Arboricultural Advisory and Information Service, in research undertaken for the Department of the Environment, tree root systems: 
... are wide spreading, extending radially in any direction of distances often in excess of the tree’s height. Roots grow predominantly near the soil surface - over 90% of all roots, and virtually all the large structural supporting roots, are in the upper 60cm of soil. Soil disturbance within the rooting area should be avoided, as this can significantly affect tree stability and moisture uptake.
On depth: 
Whilst genetic characteristics of a tree play some part in rooting pattern, soil conditions are of overriding importance. Thus, downward penetration of tree roots can be halted by excessive stoniness, ironpans, compact soil layers (especially compact clays), bedrock, poor aeration and high or perched water tables… Obstructions in the soil at shallow depths are common in the UK, and thus it is not surprising that a survey of root plates of wind thrown trees in southern England after the storms of 1987 and 1990 revealed that 44% of root plates were shallower than 1m, 95% were shallower than 2m and the deepest root plate was only 3m (cutler et al., 1990). This pattern accords well with the large amount of data available from excavations of root systems which indicate that average root depths are typically in the range of 1-2m. 
On spread: 
Root spread is not confined to the area delineated by a downward projection from the branch tips as has often been supposed. Excavation has revealed that roots can grow for a considerable distance beyond the branch spread; typically extending outwards for a distance equivalent to at least the tree’s height, and in some cases (particularly in infertile or compacted soils) up to 3 times tree height. 

What are the implications of this? The research note puts this passage in bold: 
Tree roots may extend radially a distance equivalent to at least the height of the tree and are located primarily in the upper 60cm of soil…. Thus, any soil disturbance within the rooting zone will damage tree roots and should be avoided. 
Adding:
Within the rooting area the following should especially be avoided:-
  • trenching, even a shallow (<150mm) trench
  • soil compaction by movement of vehicles or storage of materials...
   

One year ago, we wrote another post about The roots of an oak tree…, saying:
Aggregate Industries’ proposed scheme to quarry Straitgate Farm would result in the loss of a large number of mature trees, according to the company’s own consultants, including two 200-year old oaks, Trees F and G.
The company's consultants had said:
Devon County Council Highways have confirmed that they would not accept a “no dig” construction, due to HGV vehicles that will be using the road to access the proposed development... [which] means that the works will potentially interfere with the root protection areas of Trees F, G and H and some of G15A as illustrated by Drawing R22/L/3-3-005 and it is likely they will be damaged by the development and need to be felled. 4.1 
39 All existing trees, shrubs and hedgerows within the site and on its boundaries shall be retained and protected from damage during the process of extraction and subsequent restoration unless they are identified to be removed as part of the current phase or a succeeding phase of mineral working or restoration as set out in the approved plans.  

41 Outside the designated mineral working areas, trees shall not be felled, lopped or topped or have their roots damaged and hedgerows shall not be removed, thinned or cut back without the prior written consent of the Mineral Planning Authority.  
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.
How close are Aggregate Industries' construction works to trees F & G? This drawing couldn’t be clearer:

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AI’s parent can be charged with ‘complicity in crimes against humanity’

Aggregate Industries' parent company Holcim – previously known as LafargeHolcim, a conglomerate formed by the merger of Swiss-based Holcim and French-based Lafarge – is accused of financing terrorism in Syria, as we have previously posted. 

The company had argued that French authorities had no formal jurisdiction for prosecuting charges of war crime involvement abroad, an argument that was this week rejected:
PARIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) - France's highest court on Tuesday rejected a request from French cement maker Lafarge that it dismiss charges of complicity in crimes against humanity as part of an enquiry into how the group kept its factory running in Syria after war broke out in 2011. The procedural ruling, which upheld an earlier decision by a lower court, is not a verdict on guilt. But it means a multi-year investigation into the company's criminal liability on the grounds of alleged, highly symbolic crimes against humanity charges can continue.
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Thursday, 21 December 2023

Merry Christmas


It's nearly Christmas and the Straitgate saga continues to blight the lives of local people – as it has done since 1965.

We have often used the word saga to describe the attempts by Aggregate Industries to recover a relatively minor amount of sand and gravel from Straitgate Farm. From this dictionary entry, you can see why: 
A saga is the kind of long, drawn-out story that can cause the people who hear it to roll their eyes in boredom. 
To see the long, drawn-out story for Straitgate, click history, and indeed be prepared to roll your eyes. 

Now that Aggregate Industries has finally won permission to quarry Straitgate Farm – permission to quarry little more than 1 million tonnes of saleable sand and gravel from the 20 million tonnes originally hoped for – you might have expected a rush of activity by the company to get things going, given how much the company previously complained about how its other site 23 miles away at Houndaller could not produce enough of the right material, and given the company only has 3 years to fulfil a gamut of onerous pre-commencement conditions and obligations. 

But apparently not. Click update to see how much Aggregate Industries has achieved – or is prepared to say it has achieved – in the first of those 3 years. Suddenly, it would seem, Aggregate Industries is in no rush at all. 

No doubt there will be more fun and games next year, but for now we wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
 
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Tuesday, 19 December 2023

Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for November and December


This week, with regards to the implementation of this permission, the company has said it has nothing to report for the last two months of the year, adding "the plan is to pick things up and get them moving in the New Year".

If such updates are to be believed, this means that Aggregate Industries has undertaken no activity in relation to the site for the last 6 months – with little activity of note before that.*

The company must satisfy a number of pre-commencement conditions and obligations before any mineral extraction can start.

EDIT 20.12.23 

* We asked Aggregate Industries: 
According to your updates, Aggregate Industries has done nothing with regard to Straitgate for the last six months or so, apart from sending a letter to the PWS owners - can you confirm this is correct? 
Tellingly, the company was unwilling to issue any such confirmation, other than to say: 
I can confirm that we have complied with the undertakings contained within our planning permission and that the permission gives us 3 years within which to implement the permission.
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Friday, 1 December 2023

‘Exceptionally high’ rainfall – and still no water monitoring at Straitgate

Mineral extraction at Straitgate Farm is permitted to a level down to a guesstimate of the maximum water table – the MWWT. 

In their appeal decision, the Planning Inspectors said: 
the MWWT grid would be updated as necessary to reflect any higher groundwater readings.
Updated as necessary. Planning condition 28 for the Straitgate permission states: 
Prior to the commencement of any soil stripping on any phase of the development, a review of the Maximum Winter Water Table (MWWT) grid (being the hydrogeologically modelled surface of the maximum winter water table based on the highest recorded winter groundwater levels) shall be submitted to the Mineral Planning Authority for its approval in writing. 

Last month, the Environment Agency – in its Monthly water situation report: England October 2023 – reported that rainfall in the South West over the period November 2022 to October 2023 has been "Exceptionally high". 
What impact has all this rainfall had on the water table at Straitgate? Has the MWWT been exceeded again – as it has been in the past? 

No one knows. Aggregate Industries has not monitored groundwater levels at Straitgate since March 2022, the best part of 2 years. 

The company has confirmed: 
...we are not currently undertaking water monitoring at Straitgate. This is because there is no requirement to monitor at present as we have not yet started to implement our planning permission and therefore, the monitoring requirements within that permission have not yet started... 

However, it will be our intention during the course of 2024 and 2025 to undertake the 12 months of baseline monitoring that is required, and to seek approval of the required schemes so that the permission can be implemented prior to the January 2026 deadline. 
The MWWT is meant to reflect the maximum water table. Clearly – absent almost 2 years of groundwater monitoring during exceptionally wet periods – there is a high chance it doesn't.

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Monday, 27 November 2023

Aggregate Industries delays PWS monitoring scheme visits

In June, Aggregate Industries wrote to Private Water Supply owners surrounding Straitgate Farm, advising that the company would visit them in the Autumn "to agree how, and where, we would monitor your private water supply". 

Aggregate Industries has now written to PWS owners, advising that the company is "not currently in a position to undertake the proposed visits to agree monitoring locations this Autumn. Instead we are hoping to undertake these visits during January 2024...".

Aggregate Industries was granted permission to quarry Straitgate Farm on appeal on 5 January 2023.
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Sunday, 19 November 2023

Secondary aggregates continue to outsell sand & gravel in Devon

This month, Devon County Council published its 12th Local Aggregate Assessment. The LAA is:
… published annually to inform development and monitoring of Minerals/Local Plans, including recent sales and revisions to levels of reserves and the length of landbanks. 
According to the LAA, sales of land-won sand and gravel in the county have continued to flatline, with 0.521 million tonnes sold in 2022, down 4% from 0.541 the previous year. As the chart below shows, sales have not recovered since the financial crisis of 2008.


Sales of secondary and recycled aggregates across the county, however, tell another story. 

In 2022, secondary aggregates continued to outsell sand and gravel. The LAA 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 2022 accounted for 85% of the county’s production of secondary aggregates (an increase of approximately 6% from 2021). 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. 
And sales of recycled aggregates grew in 2022, approaching sales of sand and gravel. 
Despite the current economic uncertainty, sales of recycled aggregates increased by approximately 12% in 2022 from the previous year.
The LAA describes recycled aggregates as: 
the waste arising from construction, demolition and excavation activity comprises a range of materials, of which the ‘hard inert’ elements (e.g. concrete, bricks, stone) can be recycled for use as aggregates.


With regard to future availability, there are hundreds of millions of tonnes of china clay mining waste piled all over Devon and Cornwall. A planning application by Aggregate Industries to continue to work secondary aggregates at Lee Moor was approved in 2019. In relation to recycled aggregates, according to the LAA: 
4.2.9 ... the annual processing capacity of Devon’s fixed CDEW recycling facilities (estimated as 1.28 million tonnes in the 2020/21 Devon Waste Plan AMR) is more than adequate for current and potentially greater levels of recycled aggregates production.
The hope must be that sales of the more sustainable secondary and recycled aggregate alternatives will displace the need for digging up primary virgin sand and gravel, including material from the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds. 

Hanson’s Town Farm Quarry, near Burlescombe, is one source of material from the Pebble Beds. The LAA reports that the site was mothballed this year: 
2.5.7 Town Farm forms part of Hanson’s Whiteball operation, for which the processing plant lies in Somerset adjacent to its border with Devon. An application for the continuation of extraction of existing sand and gravel reserves for a further 10 years was received in November 2022 and permission was granted in March 2023. The site was still operational in 2022, however, it was temporarily mothballed on 1st February 2023. 
So, clearly, material from the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds – the same material that underlies Straitgate Farm –  is not in such high demand, nor so profitable, for Hanson to be persuaded to keep the gates at Town Farm open. 
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Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Aggregate Industries postpones Straitgate public meeting

In February of this year, Aggregate Industries informed us that: 
... we agree with your suggestion of a public meeting but would propose that this may be best held in the Autumn when there will be more information to report on. 
Last week, the company advised that this meeting has been postponed: 
You may recall previously we indicated the possibility of holding some sort of public event in the Autumn to update people on Straitgate.  However matters have not moved as quickly as we had hoped and therefore we are not in that position but I would like to reassure you that this remains part of our plans and when we are ready I will be in touch.
This follows a number of months of apparent inactivity, as we posted here.
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Friday, 3 November 2023

We all know Aggregate Industries will have difficulty complying with Straitgate’s ‘no water body’ condition – Google Earth images confirm why

One of the first posts on this blog, back in 2012, asked: Could Straitgate be quarried without water? 

We noted that Exeter Airport's request that "no ponds or body of water be allowed as part of this development" to ensure aircraft safety from bird strikes, would surely be an impediment to any scheme. 

And indeed this impediment has now been formalised.

Earlier this year, the Planning Inspectors, in granting permission to quarry Straitgate Farm, conditioned: 
As we posted in January, this makes Aggregate Industries' plans for Straitgate incompatible with the Inspectors’ planning conditions, given that the company's approved plans rely on the formation of water bodies – both for flood mitigation and for restoration. As we wrote, the Inspectors' condition: 
...is clear and unambiguous. It is not limited by the size or duration of any water body – large or small, permanent or temporary.  
What exactly is a water body? As we previously posted: 
Wikipedia says "The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rarely, puddles." LawInsider goes further. This helpful graphic also explains.  
In that 2012 post, we wrote about Aggregate Industries' nearby sand and gravel quarries at Blackhill and Hillhead, quarries that extracted the same type of material from the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds that would be extracted at Straitgate Farm. We wrote that Google Earth images: 
...reveal several bodies of water in each and it is inconceivable that Straitgate, particularly with all its water related issues, could ever be quarried without the formation of ponds or lagoons of some kind.
In fact, Hillhead suffered ponding problems only this year. 

Further back, we posted how the water body at Aggregate Industries' quarry at Thorn Tree Plantation at Blackhill was meant to be ephemeral but is instead present all year round. 

The company's quarry at Venn Ottery also suffered ponding issues. 

Hanson’s Town Farm Quarry works the same type of material and also has bodies of water. 

But let's build on that 2012 post, and, using Google Earth’s historical imaging, look at all five BSPB quarries in Devon that have been worked in recent times. The images below show the quarries at Venn Ottery, Marshbroadmoor at Rockbeare, Thorn Tree Plantation at Blackhill, Houndaller at Hillhead and Town Farm, at a time when extraction was actually underway. 

Venn Ottery
Marshbroadmoor
Thorn Tree Plantation
Houndaller
Town Farm



Clearly, sizeable new bodies of water were introduced at all of them.

So, even if we were to overlook Aggregate Industries' flood mitigation and restoration plans for Straitgate – that actually encourage water bodies – the above images underline, if any more underlining were needed, just how unworkable the whole scheme really is. 
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‘Tyre wear particles now the leading cause of traffic pollution’

Aggregate Industries claims to be:
... a progressive, future-facing business. A company that is intrinsically sustainable - trusted and respected by stakeholders and the communities in which we operate.
Fine words, but in the real world the company's scheme at Straitgate Farm will see as-dug aggregate hauled 23 miles between quarry face and processing plant, more than any other UK quarry operation, some 2.5 million HGV miles in all. 

So, unless Aggregate Industries' HGVs magically run without tyres, Devon communities will pay the price.

The warning follows UK government data that shows significantly more tiny pollution particles now come from tyre erosion than are emitted from vehicle exhausts. The report estimates 52% of all the small particle pollution from road transport came from tyre and brake wear in 2021, plus a further 24% from abrasion of roads and their paint markings. Just 15% of the emissions came from the exhausts of cars and a further 10% from the exhausts of vans and HGVs.
As we drive, our tyres wear down and release invisible particles that we inhale and ultimately ingest. Strikingly, the rate of release of these particles is almost 2,000 times greater than the mass of particles from a modern exhaust pipe. It looks likely, then, that these apparently mundane yet economically vital and technically sophisticated products are a source of pollution that will make Dieselgate — the exhaust emissions cheating scandal of 2015 — look minor. The difference? No rules are being broken, yet current US and EU polices promoting battery electric vehicles through subsidies are set to make the problem worse.
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Sand & gravel sales slump

The third quarter saw notable declines in the sales of ready-mixed concrete and sand & gravel, with drops of 15.0% and 12.2%, respectively. For ready-mixed concrete, the magnitude of the decline is comparable to 2009Q1, when macroeconomic and construction conditions were severely impacted by the global financial crisis.
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Saturday, 28 October 2023

‘Trees galvanise people. Mature trees are irreplaceable, priceless gift from the past’

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Construction industry ‘now set to remain in recession until start of 2025’

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Friday, 13 October 2023

Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate update for September

Aggregate Industries has provided the following update this week in relation to implementing its permission to quarry Straitgate Farm: 
... there are no updates for September but I am hoping we will be in a position to commence submitting schemes to discharge conditions before the end of the year.
Again, another month has gone by with apparently nothing to report. 
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