Thrislington Quarry extension set to be approved

Oct 14 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal

COMMUNITIES and companies have clashed over plans for a 225-acre quarry extension.

Tomorrow Durham county councillors will decide on a bid by Lafarge Aggregates to extend the life of its existing magnesian limestone Thrislington Quarry, where less than four million tonnes of top grade material remains, beyond 2015.

The company wants to extract 29 million tonnes over 32 years from the extension site, which would involve building a 200-metre long tunnel under the A1(M).

The site would be restored for nature conservation uses.

Quarrying of high grade magnesian limestone started at Thrislington in 1954 and the southern boundary of the extension site, which is high quality farmland, lies near the active Bishop Middleham Quarry.

Also nearby are Coxhoe Quarry and Cornforth East and West quarries.

The Stop Lafarge Action Group (Slag) has lodged a protest document and a DVD with planners, citing concerns over traffic levels, air quality and water and noise pollution.

The group’s document says: “The Lafarge application is based on yesterday’s economy, and the future of the Durham economy lies in high technology, tourism and the service sector.

“Durham’s burgeoning industry will not be served by digging more large holes in our countryside. Nor will the high profit, hi-tech industries be encouraged to an area where 19th Century industries are still being encouraged.

“Nor will we attract the rural idyll-seeking, prosperous council tax payers of the future to our area by blighting the countryside.

“This application represents a backward step and away from the economy of the 21st Century.”

Hartlepool Council has raised “grave concerns” over the potential of the scheme to affect the town’s underground water supply, which is also one of the fears highlighted in over 1,300 objection letters. Bishop Middleham Parish Council has objected, saying the area has already been subject to quarrying for 50 years and that the “rural hinterland will be ravaged beyond repair”.

Objections have also come form Sedgefield Borough Council, Ferryhill Town Council and West Cornforth residents.

The Environment Agency, which originally objected because of a lack of information over the impact on the water supply, has now withdrawn the objection after the company submitted a scheme to protect the aquifer.

A third of the material from Thrislington is high grade limestone, known as industrial dolomite, which is supplied to the steel industry.

While Lafarge runs the quarry, Steetley Dolomite Ltd (SDL) operates adjacent works which process the material, and is the only supplier of dolomite to the UK steel industry. SDL, which employs 42 people at Thrislington and has invested £5m in its works from 2003, has warned that its future is reliant on the application being approved.

The County Durham Local Minerals Plan recognises the special nature of the dolomite at Thrislington justifies an exception to the generals presumption against new workings and extensions.

A Government publication also says that the dolomite is of national and regional importance.

Planners, who are recommending approval for the bid, say there is a continuing economic need for the material.

Major fault

A YEAR ago a number of fissures, or holes, appeared on land near the quarry sites. Local people feared they had been caused by changes to the blasting regime at Bishop Middleham Quarry, which is operated by W & M Thompson.

Planners say there appears to be a major fault zone in the limestone and coal measures in the area. Past coal mining can contribute to the fissures, when support is removed and rising water levels after mine pumping stopped could also be a factor.

Planners believe the quarry operations are unlikely to have caused the fissures, which have now been filled in by the Coal Authority.