Quarry plans ‘will destroy village’ - residents

The application documents state the quarry would have "highly localised temporary adverse landscape and visual effects"

Villagers opposing plans to create a quarry on designated green belt land near Selby in North Yorkshire have said the scheme would cause lasting damage.

Stone Cliffe Aggregates want to operate a 44-acre quarry on farmland close to the A1(M) and A63 Selby Fork junction to produce stone for concrete.

However, local residents said the area "cannot take any more development".

North Yorkshire Council said the application would be "considered on its own merits".

Campaigners against the proposal, which would see 2.7m tonnes of limestone excavated over 19 years, say lasting damage would be caused to the communities of Hillam, Monk Fryston, Burton Salmon and Lumby.

Residents said the development, which would be 984ft (300m) to the west of Lumby, would cause damage to landscapes and wildlife and create heavy traffic, smoke, noise, dust, loss of land and a deterioration in water quality.

'Unfettered greed'

Natural England has warned the development could have potential significant effects on several designated sites of special scientific interest, including Madbanks and Ledsham Banks, Sherburn Willows and Fairburn and Newton Ings.

However, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the agency also said if designed and managed appropriately the scheme could be "very valuable in joining up habitats, enhancing a regionally important habitat corridor".

Documents submitted to North Yorkshire Council in support of the planning application state there would be "safe and suitable access" - to the site and the traffic generated would not have a severe impact on nearby roads.

A spokesperson for the group Protect Lumby Against New Environmental Threats, said approving major developments on agricultural land "despite a litany of environmental concerns" and opposition from local residents "flies in the face of government policies".

"We feel we are being sacrificed on the altar of unfettered greed," they said.

North Yorkshire Council's assistant director of planning, Trevor Watson, said the application would be "carefully assessed against national policy and guidance, local policy and emerging policy.

He added representations from statutory consultees along with "views expressed by groups, organisations and individuals" would all be taken into account.