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Sites under Threat: Permission given for Quarrying at Thornborough
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Submitted by Andy B on Wednesday, 17 January 2007 Page Views: 2196
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 Country: England County: Yorkshire (North) Type: Henge
Internal Links:    Thornborough Central submitted by DavidRaven
George Chapman writes: On Tuesday, North Yorkshire County Council planning committee granted
Tarmac permission to expand quarrying within the ritual landscape of
the Thornborough Henges. Despite the loss of hundreds of
archaeological features dating back to the Mesloithic being destroyed
within the current quarry, the couincil still accepted Tarmac's view
that there would be no archaeology within the proposed area, the same
argument that was accepted for the last (current) quarry.
What I think is much more worrying, a sign of how out of balance this
world is, is the unusual advice given to the planning committee by its
Council Officers.
In 2005, TimeWatch, Heritage Action and Friends of Thornborough handed
North Yorkshire County Council a petition with 10,000 signatures,
which included the following text:
"To: UK. Government, North Yorkshire County Council, Tarmac.
It has come to my attention that the quarrying activities at
Thornborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom are destroying
archaeological remains related to the internationally important henge
complex on Thornborough Moor.
It is my wish that all quarrying in the vicinity of the Thornborough
Henges should be stopped and that the areas surrounding these
monuments be protected against future quarrying or other activities
that may cause any archaeological remains to suffer damage.
It is my wish that the area surrounding the Thornborough henges, to a
radius of one mile from each of the henges and cursus should be
recognised as part of a historic landscape and protected against
further damage.
Sincerely
The undersigned"
It is important to note that this petition was started a year before
Tarmac applied to quarry Ladybridge and it refers to all quarrying
within a mile of the major monuments.
In the Council Officers report to the Planning Committee for Tarmac's
first application, the petition was noted in the list of objections to
the quarry.
However, despite several questions regarding how NYCC have dealt with
the petition it has become apparent that few of the councilors have
been informed of its existence and effectively it has been forgotten.
Except by the planning officers, who referenced it it thier report to
the planning committee for todays planning meeting:
5.10 "Additionally both the Friends of Thornborough Henges and the
Employees of Tarmac wish to remind Members of the substantial volume
of representations made and petitions submitted in respect of the
previous application being 869 letters of objection and three
petitions of objection totalling 9680 signatories. ... However,
members must be aware that the proposals have been substantially
amended in response to archaeological survey and investigations
undertaken during 2004/5 and whilst noting the substantial overall
concern regarding quarrying in in this area Members must have regard
only to the specific objections to the revised application."
Now, if you read the petition, one has to ask what has changed? The
proposed quarry is within one mile of the Thornborough Henges, but now
those petition signatures no longer apply.
In my view, NYCC have failed to address the concerns of almost 10,000
of the electorate. In North Yorkshire, that is an awful lot of voters
to ignore. To think our politicians have the gall to complain about
voter apathy, clearly only our votes have value, not our opinions.
However, we have accepted that trying to get NYCC to respond to a
petition from the people is clearly not going to happen, and with the
council officers report clearly avoiding taking those peoples wishes
into account, it is clear that the planning committee have been
improperly informed by their own technical "experts". This was not the
only example of this on show today - 400 letters of objection were
also ruled innadmissable, and the committee were told that there was a
total of 8! With this in mind, it was obvious to us that this
application was going to be granted.
We therefore last week asked NYCC for our petition back so we could
pass it to another target - the UK Government. We believe this is
important and urgent since NYCC have the original copies and we need
to be able to present the petition to parliament within the next month
in order to give the Minister for Heritage an opporunity to "pull in"
the application before work commences on site.
NYCC have so far failed to respond to our request, which we believe is
a simple one.
Can I ask all who have signed the Thornborough petition to write to
both the press and to NYCC asking for this petition to be returned to
us, NYCC may be aboe to get away with ignoring your views, but they
should not be allowed to undermine the national democratic process by
delaying the petitions progress to parliament. Here are the mail
addresses:
Mrs Margaret Hulme, Chairman of North Yorkshire County Council
cllr.m.hulme@northyorks.gov.uk
Once we handed in the petition, I started another petition, just in
case the first was somehow ignored and lost by NYCC:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TimeW1/petition.html
I no longer see how we can blame Tarmac for doing what NYCC appear to
be encouraging them to do, after all Hansons have now also announced a
desire to quarry in the area and NYCC are considering four seperate
areas to be made Preferred Areas for Quarrying. I really don't think
these would be forthcoming if someone within NYCC were not telling
them it was ok. And by the looks of todays planning meeting it would
appear that NYCC have a very different interpretation of Thornborough
than the rest of us.
For example, at no time was the area referred to as a complex - only
the henges were mentioned by the council officers, even though the
quarry is closer to the cursus and Three Hills barrow group. These
were never mentioned. In addition, despite the new quarry being around
40% of the previous quarry (to be quarried in 2 years instead of the
fifteen alloaced for the previous one) the council interpreted this as
a small scale extension, a boundary shift - meaning that granting the
application was much easier.
Then look at what the council did with the petition and with the
letters of objection, and also how they managed the Henges
Consultation Group (failing to involve most of the concerned groups
until the conservation plan was finalised {the conservation area
simply seeks to "conserve" the henges, not the wider complex}).
I'd say that there is a really serious problem in North Yorkshire and
the best we can do is to highlight this to the press, our mp's and
anyone else that we can think of. In addition, we need to get this
petition gathered and passed to UK GOV.
Why not print off a copy and get your friends to fill it in? hand
written petitions are far more effective, at least they should be.
http://www.timewatch.org/Docs/To%20the%20House%20of%20Commons3.rtf
Source: Thornborough Talk
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Henges 'safe' as council votes for new quarry extension plan (Score: 1)
by Andy B on Wednesday, 17 January 2007
(User Info | Send a Message) | Decision to approve application will safeguard more than 50 jobs at quarry site
UNANIMOUS approval was granted yesterday for the extraction of 1.1 million tonnes of sand and gravel from a quarry extension within 1,100 yards of what is said to be one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain.
The granting of planning permission allows Tarmac Northern Ltd to extend its Nosterfield Quarry north of Ripon across 76 acres of Ladybridge Farm despite its proximity to the three Thornborough Henges, which experts have described as the Stonehenge of the North.
In February last year, North Yorkshire County Council's planning and regulatory functions committee rejected a larger scheme covering 112 acres after English Heritage said the scheme would destroy archaeology of national importance at a Scheduled Ancient Monument
But, after talks with English Heritage and North Yorkshire's own heritage unit, Tarmac submitted a revised application which omitted the area regarded as having archaeological importance. An appeal against the first decision will now be withdrawn.
The decision was taken despite opposition from the action group The Friends of Thornborough Henges, which was criticised yesterday after accusing the council's officers of submitting a "seriously flawed" and biased report, which was "misleading".
Friends chairman John Lowry told the committee meeting in Masham Town Hall that the revised application was weak and it was impossible to support within current planning policies.
"This is not the opinion of a lay man, but the considered opinion of a QC," he said.
More:
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1975764 | [ Reply to This ]
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Re: Henges 'safe' as council votes for new quarry extension plan (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 18 January 2007 | On visiting Thornborough it is obvious that the whole area is a sacred landscape. One of the few remaining on such a scale. I have done all I can to help but it now seems that we have ultimately lost our battle. This will make our yearly Beltane celebration (start of May) all the more important this year. Please keep an eye on sacredbrigantia.com for details of 2007 beltane celebration and come along and show them that we really do number at least 10,000.
Please keep up all the good work George - you and the Friends are the best bet for anything to change. | [ Reply to This ]
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Re: Henges 'safe' as council votes for new quarry extension plan (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, 18 January 2007 | It is scandalous that the North Yorkshire council have not only managed to reject a 10,000 petition, but have also "lost" it.
Thornborough Henges, like Stonehenge, is such an important site and it should not be left to local dignitaries to decide its fate. In this instance it should be a national not local decision.
Please sign the new petition, just in case they can't find the old one.
http://www.petitiononline.com/TimeW1/petition.html
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Re: Henges 'safe' as council votes for new quarry extension plan (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, 19 January 2007 | Beltane celebration at the central henge on Sunday 6th May 2007. Starts about noon. Green men and women from all over Yorkshire and beyond will descend on this sacred landscape to impart joy and thanks to old mother nature. This is a chance to show the council that many many people care deeply about this magical area. Please turn up and support our henges!! Drums, pantomime horses and green folk a plenty . . .
http://www.sacredbrigantia.com for details nearer the time. | [ Reply to This ]
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