BAA quarry restoration fund launched

THE British Aggregates Association has launched a new Restoration Guarantee Fund –– a mutual fund which has been set up to provide restoration guarantees for BAA members where these are required to secure planning consents.

The fund is in line with a recommendation in government mineral planning guidance (MPG7, 1996) that ‘mutual funding schemes within industry sectors can be helpful in demonstrating to mineral planning authorities that quarry sites can be restored and looked after effectively, in the rare cases of financial failure, by mineral operators or landowners’.

Restoration guarantee bonds are being increasingly sought by mineral planning authorities and can be extremely expensive. However, the BAA says its scheme is geared towards providing the necessary cover at an affordable price. The BAA fund is also unique in that it covers rock quarries as well as sand and gravel workings.

‘This provides the protection society needs at a reasonable cost to the operator, and hence the buyer of quarry products,’ said Roger Cullimore, chairman of the BAA Restoration Guarantee Fund. ‘It has taken a lot of hard work to get this fund off the ground and I hope it attracts the support it merits from independent quarry operators.’