Judge bans repeat trespassers from quarry
TWO men who repeatedly ignored warnings that they were putting their own and other lives at risk by trespassing in a Warwickshire quarry have been banned from the site by a judge.
Midlands Quarry Products took the case to court after a group of men broke through security fences to ride motorbikes and fire air rifles at the disused Jees and Boon Quarry at Hartshill, near Nuneaton. MQP say repeated warnings from company staff and security guards were ignored and criminal damage was caused.
In May a judge at Coventry County Court granted an injunction restraining the two defendants from entering the quarry for a period of 12 months. He also ordered the defendants to pay MQP’s costs. The two men had previously been offered the opportunity to sign an undertaking not to enter the quarry rather than go to court. Both declined to do so, although one indicated to the court that he would not oppose the order being made. The case against a third man was dropped after he signed such an undertaking.
The case comes as the Quarry Products Association launches its annual Play Safe…Stay Safe campaign with the warning that children’s lives are being put at risk by irresponsible adults who break down quarry fences. Some do so simply to walk their dogs.
Steve Jones, operations director for MQP, said: ‘Taking the matter to court was a last resort after all else failed. We have put up reinforced fencing and signs, brought in a security firm to patrol, talked to schools and worked with the police.
‘We inspect and repair the fences on a regular basis but they are broken down again, sometimes within hours. When children see adults in the quarry it encourages them to join them through the holes in the fences.’
QPA communications director Elizabeth Clements said: ‘The problem is a serious one and I suspect that other operators will be considering following MQP’s lead in taking adult trespassers to court. We have to save these people from themselves and we certainly have to stop them from putting children’s lives at risk.’
