Final go-ahead expected for quarrying near ancient site
THE final go-ahead is expected to be given next week for further quarrying close to one of the area's most important ancient sites.
On Tuesday, August 26, members of the county council's planning committee will be recommended to approve a controversial application by Tarmac to quarry of 1.1 million tonnes of sand and gravel from farmland less than a mile from the Neolithic Thornborough Henges.
The latest moves comes after years of agument over whether more quarrying should be allowed close to a site that has been described as 'The Stonehenge of the North'.
Tarmac's existing Nosterfield Quarry, near Masham, produces 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year and the new permission would extend its life by two years.
An application for a larger site was refused in February, 2006, because North Yorkshire County Councillors decided the extraction of 2.2 million tonnes of aggregate would have an unacceptable impact on the archaeological remains.
revised scheme
But in January last year approval was given for a revised scheme extending quarrying across 76 acres of Ladybridge Farm at Nosterfield.
That decision was quashed after The Friends of Thornborough Henges began a legal challenge in the High Court.
Now the application has been reviewed and when planning committee members meet at Masham Town Hall on Tuesday they will be recommended to grant permission.
The council's Director of Business and Environmental Services, Richard Flinton, says in a report: "It is considered that there are now no grounds for refusing this application on matters relating specifically to archaeology."
opposition
The Yorkshire branch of the Council for British Archaeology, The Friends of Thornborough and the Yorkshire Archaeological Society all remain opposed to the scheme, while English Heritage has welcomed the revised proposals, saying they addressed their earlier concerns regarding the preservation of archaeological deposits of national importance.
Tarmac has stressed that its quarrying activities are not a threat to the henges. "No part of the Thornborough henges scheduled ancient monument is on the Ladybridge application site and no planning application has been made to quarry at the scheduled monument, now or in the future," a spokesman said this week.
On Tuesday of this week, more than 500 new letters of objection were handed to North Yorkshire County Council by members of TimeWatch - adding to the 1,500 letters previously collected as part of the campaign group's opposition to quarrying.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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