Barford residents reignite their campaign against quarry plans with second consultation imminent

Campaigners believe this second consultation period is likely to be towards the end of June with a timescale of three weeks in which more objections to the scheme can be raised. Warwickshire County Council has yet to set a date.

Organised by the Barford Residents’ Association action group, the long-running battle to stop the quarry is probably about to enter its final phase before the county council’s planning committee sits to decide on the fate of the Smiths Concrete application to develop a 220-acre site for minerals extraction.

Campaigners have always maintained that this is not a done deal and this is borne out by the recent success of a very similar campaign at Hamble, Hampshire where the application was refused.

Smiths Concrete is now wholly owned by Germany-based Heidelberg, the largest concrete manufacturer in the world.

The land earmarked for the proposed quarry is owned by St John’s College, Oxford, one of the wealthiest colleges in the UK.

Action group member Dr Malcolm Eykyn said: “The irony here is that if the planners grant permission for this quarry, St John’s College, which is a registered charity, will be in direct conflict with its own published ethos of ‘environmental sustainability’.

“The stated criteria of a registered charity are encapsulated by the statement that the charity will provide more benefit than harm. St. John’s is clearly in flagrant disregard of that.”

Campaigners say the overwhelming negative impact on the environment will include damage to rich market gardening quality land, thereby compromising food security.

Their other concerns are from a potential extra 200 HGVs on the ‘already congested’ A429 and risks to endangered species of fauna and flora.

Further concerns highlighted include the loss of amenity value with noise pollution and “butchery of a landscape that is the gateway to the Cotswolds in the heart of Shakespeare’s country”.

They say the quarry will also destroy protected views of the landscape, which were recently agreed to be protected in the Local Neighbourhood Plan.

The Barford action group has discovered that St John’s College, “with assets approaching a billion pounds”, has a legal agreement, filed in the Land Registry, that financially aligns it with Smiths/Heidelberg not only through the ten to 15-year sand and gravel extraction process but beyond to recycle aggregate.

At its Bubbenhall site north of Leamington, Smiths started extractions in the1970s and is still carrying out operations nearly 50 years later.

Dr Eykyn said: “In essence the shareholders of the German company Heidelberg, along with St John’s College, will be gaining financially at the expense of damage to communities close to south Warwick,”

Dr Eykyn will be addressing an open meeting for residents and other interested parties in the hall at Barford St Peter’s C.E. Primary School in Church Street on Monday July 8 at 7.30 pm.

Ray Chambers, Smiths Concrete general manager, has said that Smiths is confident that the proposals are robust, the mitigation measures are extensive and that the quarry is “much needed”.

Smiths has included the relevant links to the plans on its website at https://www.smithsconcrete.co.uk/wasperton/