Campaigners fight plans to reopen ball clay pit

One of the six lakes proposed to be removed under plans to reopen a quarry

Campaigners have warned against plans to cut down a woodland as part of a move to reopen a ball clay pit.

Clay pit operators Sibelco want to expand the Zitherixon quarry, located between Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot in Devon, to extract five million tonnes of ball clay over the next 50 years.

The firm stopped extracting from it in 1995, but it said reserves of this type of clay - used by the ceramics industry for products such as toilets and tiles - were now low.

According to the plans, extracting the clay could mean removing six fishing lakes, surrounding trees and relocating Newton Abbot Rugby Club.

Holland Risley set up Save Our Trees

Holland Risley, who set up the campaign group Save Our Trees when he saw Sibelco's proposals, said: "Killing a huge forest affects all of us.

"There's so many homes along the edge of the proposed site, we are talking 50 metres to 100 metres maybe from the edge of the quarry works.

"This is wholly an inappropriate location for a clay quarry."

He cited silica dust, extra lorry traffic, flood risk and removal of green space in Kingsteignton as reasons local people in his group object to the plans.

The boundary in red shows the proposed size of the clay pit

Both Newton Abbot Fishing Association and Newton Abbot Rugby club are tenants on the land Sibelco plans to turn into a quarry.

Ian Powell, from the fishing association, said they had a good relationship with the landowner and they were hopeful they would get new fishing grounds somewhere else.

"There are millions of pounds worth of aggregate in the ground still here," he said, adding the club knew one day it would be mined again.

"Our lease has always been on that basis."

The rugby club also hoped a new site could be found because their lease is up in 2028.

Mike Saxton, head of rugby, said the club "can't apply for grant funding" without a permanent site.

One of Sibelco's other ball clay quarries on the edges of Kingsteignton

Sibelco, which has put pre-planning information about the quarry proposals on their website, said they were not in a position to be interviewed at this stage.

However, it said it "remains committed to engaging with the community during the consultation process".

On its website, the landowners said they do have some historic planning permission which they hope to consolidate with a modern application once they get community feedback.

Martin Wrigley, MP for Newton Abbot, said controlling the environmental impact might be more important rather than trying to get a scheme rejected outright because it was already in an area designated in the council's minerals plan.

"Given the designations already on this site and the pre-planning report, some 320 pages, it's difficult to see how we can stop it," he said.

"But we can certainly make the best of it to all the people around."

Devon County Council will not know a timeline for processing a planning application until it has been submitted, but Sibelco's online plans suggest it wanted to start phase one work in 2028 and it hoped to excavate 5 million tonnes of clay over the next 50 years.

Campaigners from Save Our Trees said they were holding a public meeting on 24 October to discuss the plans.