Message from Arreton Parish Council
Dear Resident
I have been asked by the General Manager of Wight Building Materials to circulate the attached regarding the proposed planning application for aggregate extraction at Palmers Farm, Wootton. Whilst the extraction site is not in our Parish, Wight Building Materials are and there are implications for lorry movements between the two sites.
Palmers Farm – I am not sure of the exact location of the extraction site at this stage but Palmers Farm is situated to the north of Lushington Hill, the main road through to Wootton from Newport.
Wight Building Materials are based at St Georges Down and their entrance is off the main road not far from the Blackwater junction. They were previously known as Bardon Vectis.
To give a little context, Wight Building Materials are currently extracting sand and gravel at Hale Common, for which permission was granted in 2014.
Best wishes
Sheila
Mrs Sheila Caws
Clerk to Arreton Parish Council
April 2022 PRESS RELEASE
Sustainable quarry plans lodged by Wight Building Materials
Plans for a sustainably managed quarry in Wootton that will protect at least 36 local jobs and ensure the Island can source its own sand and gravel to make construction materials for the next decade have been submitted to the Isle of Wight Council.
The application by Wight Building Materials (WBM) for ten-year use of land at Palmers Farm, off Brocks Copse Road, also includes measures to alleviate local concerns over site traffic and protect and enhance the local environment.
The plan is vital as Palmers Farm is the Island’s last known significant resource of available sand and gravel left. Similar materials at WBM’s current sites will run out within two to three years while the level of permitted sand and gravel reserves on the Island is now below the seven-year minimum required by national policy.
The alternative to locally-sourced aggregates is to import them from the mainland - a complex and costly operation that leaves the local construction industry vulnerable to national economic and supply factors as well as presenting the logistical challenges of importing large quantities from the mainland via unregulated large and frequent lorry movements.
WBM’s application states: “Use of indigenous resources is...the most sustainable means of the Island meeting its own needs and one that the current Isle of Wight Core Strategy supports. Imported sand and gravel would have to travel further which is less sustainable, more expensive and reduces jobs and investment on the Island.”
While stressing the wider importance of the application, WBM is also addressing issues raised locally about the possible effect on the Wootton environment and on traffic movements.
The plan, therefore, commits to minimising the ecological impact both before quarrying begins (work will be undertaken in four mini-phases each restored before work on the next begins) and also afterwards when the site is re-instated to create a more diverse habitat than it is currently. These steps – assessed by Island ecological experts ARC as being a 23 per cent habitat net gain - include planting 1.5 hectares of native woodland and 1.8km of native hedgerow, creating a designated new reptile habitat and two small ponds/wetland areas.
Steps to control traffic include limiting site movements to between 8am and 4 pm on weekdays only and then only via a designated route from the site via Brocks Copse Road and Alverstone Road (the section nearest Racecourse Roundabout). Traffic will not use Palmers Road.
Lorry movements will be coordinated so site vehicles do not meet each other on Brocks Copse Road or Alverstone Road and new site access will be created on Brocks Copse Road, away from the properties in the road.
In addition, passing points on Alverstone Road will be improved while WBM will also fund the preparation of a Traffic Regulation Order to introduce a 30mph speed limit on Brocks Copse Road.
Just two employees using three vehicles (a dozer, a digger and a dump truck) will carry out quarrying work and there will be no quarrying at the weekends or bank holidays. No processing will be undertaken on site.
Steve Burton, WBM general manager, said: “While this is an application of Island-wide significance, we have taken great care to listen to - and minimise the impact on - nearby residents.
“But our business – and the Island – needs sand and gravel and we can only source that where it exists. The Palmers Farm deposit is unique as it’s the last known significant resource capable of meeting the Island’s over the next decade in a tightly-controlled and highly sustainable way.”
A plan submitted for sustainable quarry – stakeholder update.
Dear stakeholder
Wight Building Materials (WBM), which has been supplying the Island with sand and gravel for over 80 years, is keen to keep the local community informed of its plan to source sand and gravel from a sustainably managed quarry at Palmers Farm at Wootton.
This planning application is vital to the future business of WBM and also fundamental to the way the Island sources the materials it uses for everyday construction projects from domestic driveways and extensions to major building projects and transport infrastructure.
We believe that the most sustainable way of sourcing this material is to do so using available local reserves in a tightly controlled and regulated manner and with firm commitments to restoring and returning the quarried land back to nature afterwards. However, we can only extract materials where that material exists and the fact is Palmers Farm holds the Island’s largest known available supply of sand and gravel.
This is the basis of our application which will shortly be advertised on the council’s planning portal. The alternative to locally sourced, land-derived aggregate is to import it from the mainland. This is not only more costly for customers, but it is also, we believe, less sustainable as it would involve marine-dredged aggregate and large-scale, unregulated, lorry movements. WBM’s ability to source its own local materials will also safeguard 36 direct jobs and many more in our supply chain.
We will be issuing the attached press release in order to explain our plans to the public. While the proposed site is in Wootton and should not in itself affect, in any way, residents outside of the village, the way in which the Island sources its basic building materials is a matter of wider interest and importance. We are therefore keen to explain the proposals to as wide an audience as possible and we hope the press release achieves that aim.
As regards the local context, we have attended two public meetings in Wootton and Whippingham to explain our proposals and listen to comments raised. It was clear to us from these meetings that the issue of most concern was that of traffic. Though the movements from the site will only pass a small number of properties that are not on the main road network, we are keen to work with everyone and have included in our planning application a number of steps to alleviate the issues raised. The route itself has been carefully chosen to minimise the impact on the wider community, avoiding Palmers Road altogether.
Similarly, we have worked closely with local wildlife experts ARC to ensure we meet our responsibility to the local environment. A number of steps will therefore be undertaken prior to work commencing. After extraction – and work will be done in four phases over the ten-year life of the quarry – we will return the site to nature with significantly enhanced habitat biodiversity.
While we have sought to cover the main issues in the attached press release, I would like to draw the following additional considerations to your attention:
• The site is outside of the AONB.
• Initial assessment by Natural England is that it will not have a significant detrimental impact on Kings Quay or any other protected zone
• WBM has a proud track record of restoring sites – Newport Golf Club lies, for example, on one of our restored quarries. Neighbouring former quarried land has also been returned to nature in a biodiversity project with the Hampshire and IW Wildlife Trust, the merit of which was recently recognised in the inaugural Bob Edney Awards
• All the sand and gravel we quarry from the Island is used on the Island. • There will be a maximum of 50 HGV movements (25 in and 25 out) per day.
• HGV arrival and departure times will be managed by CCTV at the Palmer’s Farm site and in-cab communication to ensure that HGVs entering and leaving the site do not meet each other on Brocks Copse Road and Alverstone Road.
As a business, we are proud of our Island roots and place within the Island community. Every one of our employees lives on the Island and many have progressed through the company via our active apprenticeship programme to which we remain committed.
We have invested in the region of £10 million in our operations over the last nine years and much of this investment has been to make our business more sustainable. Our ethos is to be a company that ‘does the right thing’. It is in that spirit that we are providing you with this information and an advance copy of the press release.
We hope you find it useful and if you have any questions then please do not hesitate to contact me via enquiries@wightbuildingmaterials.com
For your further information, please see the copy of the press release issued by us to the local media on the application which is attached to this email.
Yours sincerely
Steve Burton,
General Manager,
Wight Building Materials
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