We are a group of concerned residents who oppose the proposed sand & gravel quarry at Lea Castle Farm, Kidderminster – situated alongside the A449 (Wolverhampton Road) and B4189 (Wolverley Road).

ONLY £8,000 TO GO FOR OUR £25,000 TARGET – PLEASE KEEP CONTRIBUTING!

Watch the Terms and Conditions examination of the Inquiry Live from 2:00pm 25th November 2024

Documents relating to the appeal can be viewed on the Council’s website: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/leacastlequarry.

Please read the presentation from our 2024 AGM for an update on our progress and plans

Hello Everyone
So firstly by way of update this is where we are in the process. The inquiry in person has finished. We ran out of time to get to the Round Table on schedule of conditions done so that will be on Monday 25th November we think at 2pm live streamed. Details will go up on the council website on the 18th or 19th November. This isn’t a chance to raise objections again and the inspector gave everyone chance to comment already. However you can comment on the conditions when the draft goes on the website.
It is really important we don’t clog the process up at this point so if you want to comment I would suggest you are really specific about the conditions set out that you want to comment on. Just saying you don’t agree with them won’t help. Suggestions of what you want added or improved against clause numbers would help. We are neither encouraging or discouraging you to a course of action what you do is up to you.
Just to be clear these conditions are how the quarry will operate if the appeal is upheld (this is an if and it doesn’t mean the inspector had made up his mind. We did the same thing last time). We as a rule 6 party will get a seat at the table anyway and Ms Davies (barrister)and Tim Partridge (planning expert) will represent us. They have already commented in writing and will follow this up in discussions. This round table will be live streamed with details to go on the website as to how to join.
After this then closing submissions will be made in writing by barristers by a date to be agreed. Then it’s down to the inspector to make a decision.
I just wanted to say a massive thank you (on behalf of our Chairman who doesn’t do FB!) to the committee for everything they have done in the build up to the inquiry, at the inquiry and a bit more work over the next week. Everyone had a role to play and you all did a fantastic job for the community. I like them will be very glad to get life back to being a bit more normal! Our work isn’t finished yet but the giant effort of the inquiry mostly is!
Also I still remain amazed at the number of letter writers, speakers and attendees we have heard from. It was obvious last time we don’t want this quarry and why, and its even more obvious is now. What an enormous community effort to get our message across. Not a single sand stone left unturned(except for those at Lea Castle!). Just amazing!
So everything now crossed for the next few weeks and months as the Inspector comes to a decision. Let’s hope the practice run we had last time meant we did an even better job this time and we get the decision we all want and so clear cut there is no way back!
Mike Lord

Read the notice of a second Inquiry from the Planning Inspectorate.

Read the High Court Ruling of 16th November 2023 on the Planning Inquiry.

Read NRS Aggregates Ltd. High Court Application for Judicial Review, and supporting documents.

Read Mark Garnier MP’s Letter to Michael Gove Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Read the original Planning Inquiry Appeal Decision.

Timeline:

Following the submission of the Scoping request to Worcestershire County Council in April 2018, and two public consultations held in Cookley and Wolverley in June 2019, this campaign group was formed in readiness to fight a planning application which was then submitted in January 2020.

On 30th April 16th July and 19th July 2021 NRS Aggregates Ltd wrote to Worcestershire County Council submitting additional information to further support their planning application.

On 27th March 2022 Worcestershire County Council Planning Committee voted AGAINST the planning application by a slim majority. We thought we had won, but……

On 7th November 2022 NRS Aggregates submitted an Appeal against the decision, and asked for a Planning Inquiry to be held, which sat from 28th February to 8th March 2023, and published its decision to dismiss the appeal on 5th May 2023.

On 5th May 2023 Planning Inspector Stephen Normington Dismissed the Appeal by NRS Aggregates Ltd. against the Worcestershire County Council decision to reject planning permission for a Sand & Gravel Quarry at Lea Castle Farm. This means, unless NRS Aggregates take this to the High Court, there will be NO QUARRY! (…. We thought…..again…).

On 15th June 2023 NRS Aggregates Ltd. made an application to the High Court for a Judicial Review of the Planning Inspector’s decision in an attempt to have it overturned – a process that completed on the 16th November 2023 with the High Couirt ruling that the decision was invalid on a point of law. So the Quarry is once more a possibility.

On the 16th November 2023 the High Court ruled that the Planning inspector had erred oin a point of law, and quashed the findings.

Watch a clip from Mark Garnier talking to Westminster Hall about Lea Castle Quarry:

IMPACT

• The planning application has already been rejected by Wolverley and Cookley Parish Council, Wyre Forest District Council and Worcestershire County Council who have local knowledge of the area and impact to residents, schools, business, and the environment.
• NRS has submitted more than 30 new documents. The applicant should be forced to produce a single document as required by law.
• The scoping report is now nearly five years out of date and supporting reports such as those relating to highways and the environment are now nearly two years out of date. This proposal is not being considered on information that is current.
• Due to the pandemic the majority of those on the WCC planning committee have not even visited the site.
• They state they propose to infill the quarry with inert material (this is tipping or landfill).
• NRS are trying to justify their damage to the environment by submitting pretty pictures of families picnicking ignoring noise, dust, and traffic congestion.
• There is no attempt to justify the traffic chaos and danger to local residents and schoolchildren from the HGV’s – over 150 movements per day not including traffic to infill.
• The economic argument is that 11 jobs will be created but this ignores the loss of value to our homes or the negative effect on new property delivery, losses through congestion or the cost of poor health.
• There is a conflict in policy between Wyre Forest/Homes England’s push for new homes at Lea Castle Hospital and NRS’s quarry works within a few hundred metres that has been ignored.
• NRS relies on out-of-date workplace health guidance ignoring the huge risk to local residents’ health from airborne sand particles – dust. This is silica dust that causes silicosis, a deadly lung disease. Health Authorities in the UK and around the world say dust from quarries can be deadly. This can result in silicosis which can kill people (Click here to find out more)
• Destruction of Lea Castle Farms beautiful unspoilt countryside which will essentially become an industrialised area, a blot on the landscape. This is an area which is widely used by our local community and other from further afield.
• The duration of the quarrying has already increased from 10 years to 11 years. If approved what is to stop the duration increasing further?
• Widespread exposure to harmful mineral dust for residents and children attending the five schools within less than a mile from the proposed site.
• Erosion and damage to local roads and potential for burst water mains.
• A huge risk of irreversibly polluting the water supply to the villages of Cookley, Wolverley and parts of Kidderminster.
• Impact on local businesses surrounding the proposed site.
• Impact on the historical landscape and features, including removal of approximately 100m of boundary wall dating back to 1762.
• Disruption of public footpaths which have joined the villages of Cookley and Wolverley since 1750. Removal and damage of protected trees.

This plan shows the quarry marked in red. The prevailing wind is from the southwest (but obviously can blow in any direction). This shows how the whole of Cookley will be continuously drenched in silica sand which is known to cause silicosis, a potentially fatal disease. There are 2,500 people living in Cookley who will be affected and a further 4,500 in Wolverley and Broardwaters, and the thousands more on the new Lea Castle Hospital site developments (600 homes now with a possible 800 to follow), who will also be affected as the winds change.

We think this is unacceptable.