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Protesters to deluge council over quarry
PROTESTERS fighting a quarry plan near an ancient Yorkshire monument are to hit a council with the biggest number of objections in its history.
Campaign groups Timewatch and the Friends of Thornborough Henges have been campaigning for more than a year against Tarmac's scheme at Ladybridge Farm, Nosterfield, near Ripon.
The group claims the quarrying would disturb a site that could be crucial to history but has yet to be examined by archaeologists.
Tarmac insists it has no intention of damaging the site and its application is for land almost a mile from the nearest monument or henge.
Timewatch will hand 1,500 letters of objection and a petition on Monday that will carry more than 10,000 signatures to North Yorkshire County Council planning chiefs.
The response will be the largest number of objections the council has ever received to a single application.
Timewatch chairman George Chaplin said: "Our response shows that the application is fundamentally flawed and contrary to council planning policy on many counts.
"Tarmac want to quarry in the wrong place, at a time when Yorkshire is over-producing gravel and with grave environmental impacts.
"This quarry will cause the permanent loss of nationally important archaeology and good quality arable land. The case against Ladybridge quarry is simple and undeniable."
Thornborough Henges are difficult to see from the ground but they stretch for several miles and date back at least 5,000 years.
'Wrong'
English Heritage has described the henges as the "most important ancient monument between Stonehenge and the Orkneys".
Mr Chaplin added: "We feel that by showing we are more than willing to argue our case, together with significant public support, we can ensure that right is done at Thornborough."
Tarmac's estates manager, Bob Nicholson, said the company believed that the objectors had the wrong impression of Tarmac's plans.
He said: "There is absolutely no plan to quarry the henges. They are scheduled protected monuments, and though the objectors' websites describe areas of Thornborough Moor adjacent to the henges as 'proposed quarry, the planning application we have submitted is not for Thornborough Moor.
"Our application seeks to continue a long established existing sand and gravel quarry operating under archaeological monitoring, with an extension onto an area of agricultural land at Ladybridge more than half a mile away from the nearest henge."
Mr Nicholson said the Nosterfield Quarry employed 55 staff, contractors and haulage drivers, who were organising their own protest in support of the quarrying plans.
"They are organising their own petition asking the council to take into account the value of their employment," he added.
Both sides make their cases on their websites.
Tarmac's is at http://www.tarmac.co.uk/nosterfield, while Timewatch is at http://www.timewatch.org.
Source: http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1073879
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road