Stop the Hadleigh Quarry Monster

A small quarry at Aldham Mill Hill, Hadleigh, Suffolk has applied to Suffolk County Council for permission to install a huge washing plant, 4 associated silt lagoons and a stockpile. If approved it would totally alter the nature of the site and lead to a massive increase in the range of activities undertaken there, with wide ranging and serious consequences.

This intensification of use has nothing to do with achieving the County’s mineral targets and is completely unnecessary. It would be purely of commercial benefit to the operator, but offer no benefit at all to Hadleigh. In fact the opposite case applies:

• It would mean more trucks on local roads– possibly 40 per day – which would add considerably to the congestion and road safety problems already experienced at the Aldham Mill Hill/A1071 junction.

• The wash plant proposed is a monster piece of equipment – equivalent in length to 3 big buses.
In fact, it is suspiciously large relative to the quarry’s output. So much so that we suspect there is a longer term, hidden agenda to bring in aggregates from far and wide to keep the monster fed. If this were to be the case, it would mean even more trucks clogging the hill and the A1071 junction.

• Apart from the risk of injury to children from falling off the machinery and climbing on unstable stockpiles of gravel, the lagoons would create the additional risk of drowning. These worries are not groundless. Youngsters have been seen playing on the site already, and in one instance the police were called.

• It would need water, lots and lots of it. The quarry intends get this from an on-site borehole. But what effect would this have on the aquifers and the homes nearby that rely solely on bore holes for their domestic water supply?

• The new installation would be noisy, create lots of dust and lead to mud on the road in winter.

If you would like to study full details of the application these can be found at:
https://secure.suffolkcc.gov.uk/ePlanning/loadFullDetails.do?aplId=24930