Parish Council Clerk to the Council Mrs Jean Brown 5 Mill Lane Wrentham Beccles NR34 7JQ 01502 675739 e-mail : [email protected]

Response to Lime Kiln Quarry Proposal ( Draft Local Plan for Minerals and Waste)

Graham Gunby Senior Policy Officer: Minerals and Waste Policy Planning and Development Section Resource Management Suffolk County Council 8 Russell Road Ipswich IP1 2BX

27 th November 2017

By email to: [email protected]

Copies to Cllr Matthew Hicks, SCC Cabinet Member for the Environment Cllr Michael Ladd, SCC Member for Kessingland and

Dear Mr Gunby,

I am writing on behalf of Reydon Parish Council which agreed unanimously at our meeting on 23 rd November to oppose the proposal for a new gravel pit in our Parish.

We were shocked to learn of this proposal from a resident notified as a neighbour rather than by formal notice to us as a Parish Council until 30th October . By calling the Lime Kiln Farm proposal Wangford, your consultation was significantly misleading and has caused much upset among the parishioners of Reydon who feel that the plan was being pushed through behind their backs.

We have other, arguably more serious, concerns about the process and quality of the consultation with regard to this proposal. Because the site was not one of those originally proposed by either landowners or mineral companies, it has not been given the same quality and depth of assessment in the evidence as, for example, the other two sites originally proposed for extensions to the Cemex quarry in Wangford. Likewise, there is scant reference to mitigation and landscaping plans in the documents relating to this proposal despite the fact that this is a site of 27.7 hectares in the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and close to the very sensitive environment of the Hen Reedbeds. The site itself is a winter feeding ground for curlews. The draft plan documentation is also highly misleading in that it suggests this site will be worked for around five years whereas it was stated at the consultation event held in Wangford that it would be worked for up to 30 years and be a deep extraction which would leave a very large excavation hole in the environment.

At 27.7 hectares, this quarry, if allowed, will be 3-4 times the size of the existing quarry. The transport of material from the site will involve regular dumper truck crossings of Mardle Road which is a quiet local lane much used by walkers and cyclists. The direct impact of extraction works on the residents of neighbouring and nearby properties will be significant, especially in terms of noise and loss of visual amenity. Indeed the large bunds proposed to reduce noise impact will, of course, further impact on the views and sense of open space from these properties.

The test for permission for industrial developments of this kind in the AONB is that there are exceptional circumstances and that the benefits of the development meet the national interest. We cannot see how this test is met by this proposal. Overall, the draft plan allows for a surplus of 32% of mineral against assessed need and, indeed, 50% of mineral extracted in Suffolk goes outside the County. There are plenty of other sources of mineral in the county which are outside the AONB as evidenced by the fact that all the other proposals in this draft plan are, indeed, not in AONB areas and offshore mineral extraction is a well used and viable source of mineral locally and will be used in the Sizewell development. We accept that there is a national need for mineral but we do not agree that this can only be met by taking this resource from this site in the AONB. The national need can be met elsewhere and there are no exceptional circumstances justifying this proposed breach in the national and local policies protecting the AONB.

As a Parish Council, we are always mindful of the need to retain and create local employment when we respond to Planning Applications. In this case, however, we were told at the consultation event that only three direct employee posts would be safeguarded by this proposal. We cannot see how this offers any benefit to the community which outweighs the harm to our landscape and environment which would be caused. Indeed, as wildlife tourism is a significant contributor to our local economy, it is possible that the employment and economic effects of this proposal would be negative.

In conclusion, therefore, our Parish Council is wholly opposed to this proposal. It will do significant harm to our local environment and damage the AONB contrary to national and local planning policies. It will create loss of views, landscape quality, wildlife habitat and quiet during the thirty years of working. It will leave a permanently altered landscape which will not be in keeping with the largely flat landscape of this part of the AONB. It does not meet the required tests of exceptional circumstance or national interest to be exempt from the protection afforded to the AONB.

It should be struck out from the next draft of Suffolk’s Mineral and Waste Plan,

Yours sincerely,

Jean Brown,

Yours sincerely

Mrs Jean Brown Clerk to Reydon Parish Council