Common Sense

Staffordshire County Council's Planning Committee (SCCPC) met recently to discuss progress on their strategic plans for new quarries over the next 18 years. For Folly Wood there is cause for cautious optimism. Political will to reduce excessive quarrying is gathering pace, and even with current targets only one in 3 sites will be eventually needed. Our local councillor Frank Chapman sits on the planning committee and therefore cannot take sides on Folly Wood in particular. He is however leading calls for the reduction of Staffordshire's quarrying target.
65% of all sand and gravel quarried in the entire West Midlands region is dug up in Staffordshire. This situation is planned to continue for at least 18 years. This target is not derived from any scientific data, for example mineral reserves. Our target is based merely upon historic production levels, i.e. the way the planners and the industry have always planned it. “There's perhaps a perception that Staffordshire is an un-sexy county, a quarrying county” Councillor Frank Chapman commented “and if we don't do something about this soon, [excessive quarrying] will wear down our infrastructure, and will impact upon the natural beauty of our countryside.”
The large quarry firms, mostly with headquarters in Staffordshire, cannot get enough – even in these uncertain economic times. The current Staffordshire minerals plan lists 3 times the number of site submissions required to meet even our current bloated production target. Councillor Janet Eagland's constituents in Lichfield Rural South feel “bombarded” by the big quarry companies. Three new quarries have been proposed in her division alone, including one on prime agricultural land - “someone has to feed the people of Staffordshire”.
Staffordshire does not decide on our quarrying target, it is handed to us by the West Midlands Planning Committee (WMPC). As chair of the WMPC, Councillor Baz Roberts has flagged Staffordshire's quarrying target as an issue which the WMPC with likely discuss this summer. In the meantime, SCCPC Chairman Roger Smith has signed a letter to the WMPC expressing concern about the scale of our quarrying target and questioning the validity of basing it merely on past production. I've attached the letter to this post.
Quarries have brought us negligible economic benefit, apart from enriching a few landowners and large corporations. For the rest of us they are a blight on our environment and a heavy burden on our infrastructure. It is remarkable that excessive quarrying has not been vigorously challenged before, perhaps over the last 50 years we too have come to believe that Staffordshire is a 'quarrying county'.
The SCCPC has a historic opportunity to finally end the age of excessive quarrying in Staffordshire. Serendipitously, on June 4th County Council elections will be held. This is a real opportunity to make a difference and shift the balance of power on the SCCPC to embrace a conservationist, anti-quarrying agenda. We have already begun. 'Common Sense' has been launched by Pure Folly activists and other supporters to provide practical assistance to candidates that support our agenda, for example volunteers to help leafleting. We're fighting mainly in the cities, where a change in control will have the most noticeable effect on policy. This is an opportunity to take the offensive in our battle with those who would quarry our green and pleasant land. Personally, I'm not waiting for the technocrats to finish their 'further reviews of strategies and options' or whatever this September to hear the fate of Folly Wood. We're acting now – the first leafleting run is in a couple of weeks. Anyone else who's up for the challenge get in touch, my mobile number is 07863120730. Thanks to Everyone who signed up at the Hunt Ball, and others who have already pledged to do whatever they can to help.