Bid to extend quarry works and explosive storage near Lancaster for extra 12 years

Plans to extend works at a quarry for an extra 12 years and keep an explosives storage building there are being looked at by Lancaster City Council.
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Explosives specialist EPC-UK and construction firm Tarmac, which work at Dunald Mill Quarry near Nether Kellet, have submitted a planning application to Lancashire County Council to carry on extracting minerals there, which includes the need to keep storing explosives.

Lancaster City Council is being asked for its views as an official ‘consultee’. Quarrying, minerals and waste-related planning applications are ultimately decided by the county council.

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Under a previous planning agreement for Dunald Mill Quarry, storage and distribution activities were due to end there no later than February 21 2022. Then all the buildings, fencing and lighting columns were to be removed and the site restored no later than February 21 2023.

Plans for the quarry.Plans for the quarry.
Plans for the quarry.

However EPC-UK and Tarmac are now seeking permission to extend their operations to February 2034.

Although quarry noise or the numbers of HGV lorries going back and forth are not expected to increase, the overall activities will continue for another 12 years, if ultimately approved by the county council.

Quarry sites are on both sides of Long Dales Lane but the new application relates to the east side, which is shallower and has been used for equipment, stocks and a canteen, a report states. The location is within an official impact risk zone for the Thwaite House Moss site of special scientific interest. A public footpath runs nearby from Hull Lane to Long Dales Lane.

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Lancaster City Council, which is pushing for cleaner and greener activities across the district, has asked the operators to see how carbon emissions linked to the quarry or vehicles can be limited or cut.

A report to councillors on the city council’s planning committee states: “The noise implications of the development were assessed by the city council as part of the original planning permission. It was deemed that the operation of the storage depot, on the floor of the quarry, was unlikely to give rise to noise and disturbance to people living in Nether Kellet.

“However, careful consideration was given to the associated vehicles using the surrounding highway network, including the 32 HGV movements to and from the site each week. Control conditions were therefore imposed to help mitigate the situation.”

The quarry’s explosives storage depot has a storage building and two storage magazines with containment bunding enclosed by three-metre green security fencing. The building has been constructed from concrete panels and green metal cladding sheets.

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To help preserve the local area’s state and impact on people, conditions were imposed including on floodlighting, earth seeded bunds, and control of mud and dust. These are still in place and, with the depot located within the quarry, keeping the depot would not create undue harm to the existing character of the landscape, planning officers believe.

A number of other issues will be considered in detail by the county council. These include flooding, highways and ecology, which includes nearby designated nature sites. It will speak to other organisations about these.

The report to councillors on the Lancaster’s planning committee adds: “In view of the city council’s climate emergency declaration and

the wider global climate crisis, this council requests that the county council assesses the impacts of the development and secures appropriate mitigation to minimise carbon emissions.”

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The recommendation to councillors is that no objections should be raised with the county council. Lancaster councillors will officially respond at the planning committee meeting at Morecambe on Monday February 28.