Backdale Quarry public inquiry gets under way
THIS week saw the start of the public inquiry into the long-running battle between the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) and two quarrying firms over extraction operations at Backdale Quarry on Longstone Edge, near Bakewell, Derbyshire.
The inquiry is into appeals by landowners Bleaklow Industries Ltd and quarry operators MMC Mineral Processing Ltd against enforcement action served by the PDNPA in May 2006, relating to alleged excessive limestone extraction at the site.
The planning authority believes that the amount of limestone being extracted at Backdale exceeds the scope of the quarry’s 1952 planning permission to extract vein minerals and is having an irreversible impact on the landscape of the Peak District National Park.
The 1952 permission, which allows for the extraction of fluorspar and barytes, and for the working of other minerals which are won in the course of working the permitted minerals, does not specifically mention limestone. However, the fluorspar and barytes are found in veins running through the rock, necessitating the removal of the limestone to get at the vein.
According to figures supplied by the quarrying companies involved in the dispute, some 574,000 tonnes of limestone and 11,500 tonnes of fluorspar were extracted between July 2003 and December 2005.
Concerns over the scale of limestone extraction at Backdale were first raised as far back as 1989, and following protracted negotiations and the threat of enforcement action, Bleaklow Industries, the then operator, ceased work at the site in 1998.
The site was subsequently leased to MMC Mineral Processing, who resumed extraction operations in July 2003. In November 2004 an enforcement notice was issued by the PDNPA but was later declared ‘null’ by the Planning Inspectorate.
New enforcement and stop notices were served by the PDNPA in May 2006, prohibiting operations within the area covered by the notices until legal matters surrounding the enforcement action are resolved.
The public inquiry, which began on Tuesday 13 February, is expected to last for up to 10 days.
