Liberal Democrats call for limit to Minerals Extraction

2.12.30pm GMT Tue 6th Dec 2005

Lower targets are needed to avoid new mineral workings near homes or in areas of outstanding natural beauty

Hazel Watson, Leader of the Liberal Democrats on Surrey County Council, has called for the Council to reduce the level of mineral extraction in the County over the next decade. The County Council's Conservative Executive has determined that the level of minerals extraction should be set at 2.24 million tonnes annually. The Liberal Democrats believe that this is too high.

Hazel Watson said, "It is clear from the work that the County Council has already been carried out on the new Minerals Plan that the County Council is to struggle to find acceptable mineral working sites to meet the proposed apportionment. Even if sufficient sites could be found and allocated to meet the apportionment up to 2016, the likely result would be that very little workable sand and gravel would be left for the years beyond."

"This calls into question the sustainability of the approach taken by our Conservative councillors which is based purely on historic production trends. It is also clear that sand and gravel production in Surrey has been on a downward trend for over ten years. There is no suggestion that the local construction industry has suffered as a result of this declining level of production or that it will suffer if production levels decline further" she added.

Hazel Watson continued, "There is, however, a clear suggestion that the potential new mineral extraction sites that will be required to meet the Executive's target will impact on Surrey residents, the new sites being close to homes and affecting areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty."

"We oppose the Conservative targets that will simply lead to the mineral extraction companies digging up and spoiling our beautiful county. We believe that lower targets are both sustainable, will not involve new mineral workings near residential or in beautiful areas, and will not affect the construction industry in Surrey" she concluded.