Campaigners gear up to fight quarry tipping plan (From The Oxford Times)
When It Happens Panel Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting 'OXFORD NEWS' to 80360 or email
Campaigners gear up to fight quarry tipping plan
11:40am Saturday 4th February 2012 in Oxford By Liam Sloan
Woodeaton Quarry
RESIDENTS in Woodeaton are stepping up a campaign against a proposal to dump 520,000 tonnes of rubble in a quarry after a planning application was submitted.
McKenna Plant Hire wants to restore Woodeaton Quarry by transporting an average of 20 lorry-loads of material a day from construction sites to the quarry over a 10 year period.
The Wheatley company, which owns the site, says its plans will protect and improve access to the limestone cliff-face, designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) after yielding some rare dinosaur skeletons.
Under the plan, lorries would reach the quarry by travelling from the Green Road roundabout in Headington, through Barton on Bayswater Road and along the B4027 past Beckley.
Ginette Camps-Walsh, of Woodeaton Quarry Action Committee, which opposes the plan, said: “For people who live near the quarry there are going to be major issues with noise, inconvenience, and dust, but the route is not actually through the village. For people on the route, it is the lorries.”
She added: “Many cyclists and horse riders use this route and there are many dangerous junctions. There have been a number of serious accidents.”
Residents are planning a meeting to discuss campaign tactics ahead of a decision on the application being taken by the county council.
McKenna’s transport assessment estimated lorry journeys would account for just 0.2 per cent of traffic using the B4027.
Woodeaton parish meeting chairman Peter Hore said: “It’s difficult to imagine that it will not impact on our lives in terms of noise, inconvenience and dust.”
The 16-acre quarry, which dates back to the 1940s, has not been worked since the early 2000s.
There is an existing planning permission to allow further quarrying at the site until 2042, but McKenna says that will not be carried out if its restoration plans are approved.
McKenna’s planning consultant Suzi Coyne said: “At the moment there is no restoration scheme for the quarry. It could continue working until 2042 and there is quite a lot of material in there which anyone could reopen.
“If nothing is done, it would leave a totally unsafe quarry. We’re offering to do it in 10 years, restore the landscape and safeguard the SSSI.”
Comments(5)
Andrew:Oxford
says...
1:52pm Sat 4 Feb 12
Clearly there is more money in disposing of rubble from sites than there is digging fresh stone out of the ground.
Should it go ahead though. Perhaps it would be better if the bulk materials were delivered by rail?
The quarry is less than a mile from the E-W link. There's even a disused rail-link at the former Islip Oil Terminal for a short lorry-hop to Woodeaton.
Pundit
says...
4:46pm Sat 4 Feb 12
LORD PETE MCVAY. OX2 6EG
says...
3:44am Sun 5 Feb 12
Pundit wrote:Because it is the new fashion for stay at home mummies. Before they used to clean the house and cook dinner for their hubbies when they came home from work. Now they campaign against anything from Incinerators, new houses or roads, to Quarrys. The best thing is to just ignore them, and like spoilt kids they will eventually realise that nobody is listening to them and turn their attention elsewhere.
Just another bunch of can't do merchants. Why can't peoploe be positive? Restoration of this eyesore would be great.
The Big Issue
says...
9:09pm Wed 8 Feb 12
Andrew:Oxford wrote:McKennas are from what I've heard (I'm a tipper driver) will only tip material that has been recycled or is unrecyclable; For example, any brick rubble or topsoil will be screened out and then the waste taken to the quarry to use as fill material. I think the residents are concerned because of the activities of previous companies who worked the quarry. Regarding road safety, I'd be more concerned about the idiots who race along the B4027 in their repmobiles causing accidents than McKennas' drivers, many of which have dworked for the company for many years.
"It could continue working until 2042 and there is quite a lot of material in there which anyone could reopen."
Clearly there is more money in disposing of rubble from sites than there is digging fresh stone out of the ground.
Should it go ahead though. Perhaps it would be better if the bulk materials were delivered by rail?
The quarry is less than a mile from the E-W link. There's even a disused rail-link at the former Islip Oil Terminal for a short lorry-hop to Woodeaton.
Dilligaf2010 says...
1:10pm Sat 4 Feb 12
There'll be a requirement for quarrying, in various locations, for many years to come, but if I had the option of a quarry being left, or filled in, I think I'd prefer the latter.