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1.0 RECOMMENDATION 1.1 That having regard to the environmental information planning permission be GRANTED for the reasons set out in Appendix 1 and subject to: (a) The execution of an agreement under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to: (i) secure the proposed voluntary HGV routing agreement and ‘Haulier Rules’ which all the applicant’s drivers and haulage contractors are required to abide by; (ii) secure a contribution of £10,000 from the applicant to the Council which shall be applied by the Council to mitigate the impacts of HGV traffic and provide local highway improvements; (iii) secure the route of an access along the Abbeytown ridge top on land in the applicants ownership for recreational use. (b) The conditions in Appendix 2. 1.2 That the planning assessment set out in section 4 of the report shall form the basis of the statutory requirement to be published under Regulation 21 of the Town and Country Planning Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 1999. 2.0 THE PROPOSAL 2.1 The applicant seeks to extend the life of an existing permission Ref. 2/01/9043 which expired on 31 December 2006 and extend the area of the sand quarry to the west by a further 10.7 hectares making a total site area of 19.6 hectares. 2.2 The High House Quarry is located at the eastern end of the fluvio-glacial sand ridge called the Abbeytown Ridge. Sand has been extracted from the area for 40 years and High House Quarry has been worked for 20 years in association with Aldoth and Dixon Hill Quarries, which are now worked out. The proposal is to extract 1.5 m tonnes of sand over a period of 15 years giving an annual extraction rate of 100,000 tonnes. The extraction would take place in three phases with a maximum proposed depth of working of 24m AOD, which is 5.0m above the water table. 2.3 The excavation would take place below and to the north of the ridge and is the width of the field that forms the plateau behind the ridge. The proposed final restored landform would be a hollow surrounded by slopes of varying gradients. The existing ridge line is 46.0m AOD and the existing quarry extends to a depth of 22.0m AOD. Scrub vegetation will be retained on the south side of this hollow and as the phases progress tree and shrub planting is proposed on the surrounding slopes. Hedge planting would define the boundaries of the mainly level central field system. The proposed level of the field system would be 24.0m AOD. The existing mature trees along the existing access track on the ridge top would be retained and no excavation would occur near their root spread. 2.4 The applicant proposes that traffic would be restricted to 20 laden heavy goods vehicles per weekday and 12 on Saturdays permitted under the recently expired consent. Vehicles would continue turning right on leaving the quarry access track down an unclassified road, which has had several passing places provided and then left on to the Abbeytown Road and then the B5302 to Silloth and Wigton. 2.5 The applicant supplies a range of sands primarily to markets in Cumbria, to their own concrete plant at Aldoth and their concrete block making plant at Silloth. The company employs 30 local people in these businesses. 3.0 CONSULTATIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS 3.1 Allerdale Borough Council has no objections. 3.2 Holme Abbey Parish Council has no objections. 3.3 Holme St Cuthbert Parish Council (adjoining parish) state that the application is located within the minerals and waste development area but they are concerned that any expansion of sand quarries will affect the infrastructure of particularly narrow roads and they point out that there have been problems with heavy vehicles using the B5301. 3.4 The Highways Authority has stated that with regard to the proposed extension in isolation there is no issue with the roads serving the site. However, when considered with other operations in the vicinity there are issues relating to the cumulative impact on road safety relating to the size, number and weight of vehicles. It is recommended that the applicant contributes £10,000 to an area based programme of road safety improvements which may include road alignment, provision of passing places and verge strengthening on a proportional basis dependent on the number and weight of vehicles. This contribution would form part of a Section 106 Agreement. 3.5 The Environment Agency has no objections to this application with regard to groundwater resources as the proposal is to work to a depth of at least 5.0m above the water table. 3.6 DEFRA (now Natural England) are concerned that 11.33 hectares of Grade 3a agricultural land (capable of sustaining mixed arable crops) which constitutes “best and most versatile” agricultural land is affected by the proposal. They have stated that they would normally expect that provision would be made for the reinstatement of an equivalent area of agricultural land without loss of quality. The proposed restoration will result in the 11.33 hectares of Grade 3a becoming divided into 6.15 hectares of Grade 3a and 4.89 hectares of Grade 3b, with a further 3.66 hectares of Grade 4 land and the remainder restored to create native woodland and scrub suitable for nature conservation. 3.7 The reduction in quality of agricultural land grade is partly due to the range of variable gradients proposed in the restoration scheme ranging from level ( the applicant now proposes a gradient of 1 in 60 ) on the central field to 1 in 3 on the surrounding slopes. Defra recommend that modification of the restored landform to achieve a gradual fall to a low point on the quarry floor together with a reduction in the steepness of surrounding slopes should permit a greater area to be restored to a target Sub-Grade 3a standard. 3.8 They also recommend that the applicant be required to adopt the Dixon Webb soils handling recommendations (Dated June 2006 and included in Volume 3: Appendices of the submitted Environmental Impact Assessment) as the definitive proposals with the addition of provision for the temporary storage of subsoil as well as topsoil. This would be conditioned should the application be approved. 3.9 Local Member Mr AJ Markley has been notified. 3.10 Two letters of representation have been received. The first states that he does not wish to object to the principle of the development but he is concerned about the proposed workings being visible from his house and more importantly he was concerned about the cumulative visual impact of the whole ridge being excavated in the future. He requested that advance planting was proposed now so that it would help screen the proposed development and any future extensions along the ridge. 3.11 The second letter came from a resident living on the edge of the western approach into Abbeytown and expresses concern about the large number of lorries, travelling faster than 30mph, the road being too narrow for two lorries to pass, private drives and verges being used for passing, lack of footpath being dangerous for pedestrians and inadequate lighting in the 30mph zone. He considers that the junction in Abbeytown onto the B5302 is dangerous for large vehicles. The road construction is substandard for 40 ton lorries. The questions that lorries should be permitted to operate from 6.00am to 19.00pm when the quarry opens 7.00am to 18.00pm and he is concerned that this site and the New Cowper Processing Plant should be monitored particularly between 6.00 and 7.00 am. 4.0 PLANNING ASSESSMENT 4.1 The proposal is to extend the existing quarry to the west within an Area of Search defined in Policy 30 of the Cumbria Minerals and Waste Local Plan. The consent for the existing quarry expired on 31 December 2006 without the approved area having been fully excavated or restored. The current application seeks to extend the life of the existing quarry to 31 December 2021 and extend the area of the quarry to the west also with a completion date of 31 December 2021. It proposes a comprehensive restoration scheme completed over three phases for the entire development with a maximum excavated depth of 24.0m AOD. 4.2 The main issues relate to need, landscape impacts, tourism and traffic: Need 4.3 MPS 1 requires Mineral Planning Authorities to ensure sufficient reserves of aggregates are available. For sand and gravel a landbank of at least seven years supply is recommended. There are different methods of calculating the size of the landbank, based either on the average annual production or on an apportionment agreed by the Regional Planning Body based on forecasts. Both indicate that there is an adequate supply of sand and gravel throughout the whole of Cumbria at the present time. Based on the long term average production level of 900,000 tonnes per annum the landbank was 11.7 years at the end of 2004, and on an apportionment of 700,000 tonnes the figure becomes 15 years. (Figures used in the Preferred Options document of the Minerals and Waste Development Framework). 4.4 However the size of the landbank does not tell the whole story. All planning permissions are due to expire by 2015, most before 2011. In addition deposits of sand and gravel in the county are highly variable and this also brings into question the reliability of the landbank figures.

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