BAA calls for DTI to take over quarry sponsorship

THE British Aggregates Association has written to the Prime Minister to request that departmental responsibility for the quarrying industry be switched from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions to the Department of Trade and Industry.

The BAA is calling for the change because it believes the DETR is not acting as an effective sponsor department for the industry because of its conflicting interests in planning control and enforcement and environmental sponsorship.

BAA director Robert Durward said: 'Although the industry accepts the need for these DETR activities, it would seem there is a major conflict of interest here and that neither the industry's nor the country's interests are best served by this arrangement.

'The DTI sponsors the vast majority of British industry and already has responsibility for the industrial minerals sector. As construction minerals are worked in exactly the same manner, the DTI already has the specialist knowledge required.'

According to the BAA, officials from the DTI have seen the proposal and agreed to support the association's application.

The BAA's letter to 10 Downing Street also draws attention to the decline in employment in the industry over the last two decades, from 41,000 in 1979 to 31,000 in 1999, and highlights the difficulties facing the independent operators, many of whom feel they are being increasingly marginal-ized by the major firms.

'We can no longer stand by as the DETR presides over the decline of our industry. We are key to Britain's competitiveness and should be working with the DTI, the department which is actually responsible for promoting competitiveness. The Prime Minister should make the DTI our sponsorship department at the earliest opportunity,' said Mr Durward.