Spending Aggregates Levy Money

Submitted by Vicky on Wednesday, 03 October 2001 Page Views: 1679

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has issued a second consultation on the distribution of the aggregates levy sustainability fund in England. This has the potential to directly contribute to the conservation of the prehistoric environment to the tune of £30 million in the next two years.

However to ensure that the concerns and views of all those who care about the prehistoric environment are considered responses to the paper need to be submitted by 27 November 2001. What follows is a brief resume of the key parts of the consultation (please read the whole document if you wish to make a full judgement).

DEFRA’s view is that the Sustainability Fund should support projects in 3 broad areas:
 minimising the demand for primary aggregates (which it is proposed would get £6.5 million in 2002-3 and £9 million in 2003-4),
 promotion of environmentally friendly extraction and transport (£6 million in both years), and
 reducing the local effects of aggregate extraction (£16.5 million and £14 million respectively).

It could be said that the first project area aims at seeing a reduction in the amount of quarrying in England which has many environmental benefits. The second area would directly benefit the quarrying industry. The final area benefits local communities who are adversely impacted upon by quarrying and could be seen as a pay off by the cynical!

To concentrate on the area of most interest to us - the consultation suggests that funds awarded to projects should be awarded by government bodies ie English Nature, English Heritage and the Countryside Agency. They would support projects:
 that increased biodiversity,
 that led to the conservation of geological features,
 conserving the historic environment (“Projects would support for a limited amount of time the management, conservation and interpretation of historic sites affected by terrestrial or marine aggregates extraction. Projects might include preserving archaeological sites affected by aggregates extraction…”),
 addressing old mineral permissions (including possibly buying out old permissions or compensating companies for improving environmental performance improvements!)
 in the local community.

It is unclear who would be able to apply for money from the fund and I hope that the system operates in a similar way to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme which allowed, for example, The Rollright Trust to purchased valuable land. There is no mention whether or not the quarrying companies would involved in the funds allocation process. All applications would need to be for bona fide projects and have auditable systems to reduce fraud.

The consultation document is not large but difficult to condense into a manageable piece of text. If you have any views on the consultation please let me know (paulvicky@cwctvnet) so that a response can be prepared.

There are ‘flaws’ in the proposals (there are some sops to help the quarrying industry) but this, in the short term at least, seems to be a good opportunity to get valuable money for the protection, enhancement and understanding of prehistoric landscapes and an opportunity that should not be missed. If an action plan is put together quickly then ‘we’ stand a good chance of success.

I would appreciate your views.

Regards

Paul Morgan

Note: This might sound deadly dull but the Rollright Stones was bailed out of its recent financial problems by a grant from a landfill company.

Contributor Bio for Vicky: Ex Megalithic Portal Editor, Co-author of 'Rock Around the Peak - Megalithic Monuments of the Peak District' and... More

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