Backwell quarry expansion

THE region’s largest quarry could get even bigger if plans to extend it into nearby countryside in Backwell get the green light.

Stancombe Quarry owners Tarmac Ltd are gauging the impact the extra blasting would cause residents living in the area, prior to applying for planning permission later this year.

Fears, expressed by Backwell and Barrow Gurney Parish Councils, including the potential increase in noise and vibration, will be included in the scoping request which will then form an Environmental Impact Assessment needed for the planning application.

The company, which employs 270 people, wants to extend the quarry to the south into an area used by a nearby farm to graze cattle, known as the Spinney, so it can continue mining limestone, used in the construction industry, into the middle of the century.

The existing 170-acre quarry only has four years left of accessible reserves and the expansion would provide an additional nine million tonnes of aggregate and keep it open until 2043.

Backwell Parish Council unanimously voted to ask for noise and vibration impacts and how it will affect traffic flow on Backwell Hill Road and the A370 to be included in the assessment, during a meeting held on January 12.

And Barrow Gurney Parish Council requested the effect on Barrow Court residents and the existing restrictions on using the rear entrance to the quarry, on Hyatts Wood and Backwell Hill Roads, at a meeting held on January 9.

Tarmac has operated at the quarry, which is also its regional headquarters, since 1995 but open pit mining has taken place between the villages of Flax Bourton and Backwell off the main A370 since the 1940s.

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