CAMPAIGNERS fighting plans for a quarry near Barford are urging residents to voice their opposition before it is too late.
Smiths Concrete has applied to extract sand and gravel from the 220-acre Wasperton Farm site next to the A429 over a period of 15 years.
The opening of a second public consultation by Warwickshire County Council started on Friday (November 7), following receipt of Smiths Concrete’s responses to its Regulation 25 request.
It gives people a narrow window of three weeks to submit their thoughts on the plans to WCC.
Residents have now been fighting against the planning application for nearly ten years. Over 1,000 objections were received in response to the first public consultation.
Campaigners say that if approved, the quarry would bring multiple adverse environmental and health threats to the area, permanently destroy the farmland and create long tailbacks at the nearby M40/J15/A46 junction which Highways England state is already near capacity.
The most insidious threat to the local population, they continue, comes from tiny silica particles being released into the atmosphere during extraction and processing, where they would be carried on the wind far and wide. These tiny particles are invisible to the naked eye but easily inhaled by humans and animals, causing multiple adverse health effects, including breathing difficulties in asthma suffers and those with lung conditions or heart problems, and ultimately can cause silicosis, a fatal industrial disease with no cure.
Campaigners are supported by local councillor, Jan Matecki, and MP Sir Jeremy Wright, and state they will ensure WCC planners hear the full strength of local opposition during the second public consultation.
