Campaigners unite to fight plan for quarry

Residents turned out in their droves in a mass show of strength aimed at halting plans for a second sand and gravel quarry in their village on the edge of the Black Country.

Dave Tyler, one of the protest organisers, stood in front of the goalposts at Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club to address the audience packed into the stand – and knew he was already speaking to the converted.

Last night's meeting was held to raise funds towards the costs of the campaign.

Contractor FG Davis wants to excavate sand and gravel from a 19-acre site off Mile Flat, Wall Heath, next to the rugby club.

The main entrance and exit would be on Swindon Road, opposite the Heathbrook Farm estate and a children's play area.

Four of the eight rugby pitches, on land rented by the club, would eventually disappear as the quarry grew in size.

FG Davis already operates another quarry in nearby Enville Road and residents complain it creates dust, congestion on the roads and mud on the streets.

The Quarries Fighting Fund organised last night's meeting to urge residents to dig deep to finance the campaign, employing a specialist firm of planning consultants to oppose the proposal.

Mr Tyler, aged 64, of Victoria Street, Wall Heath, a former Dudley councillor for the area, told the meeting a second quarry in the area would be an "environmental catastrophe".

"This is the most insidious encroachment on our way of life that I can ever remember," he said.

Tony Whittaker, owner of the Delph Road Industrial Estate in Brierley Hill and a property developer, has just moved into a £1.2million house next to the existing Enville Road quarry. After pledging £2,000 to the fighting fund he said: "I didn't realise until I moved in that this is like a dust bowl because of the quarry."

Another local resident, Barbara Bradley, aged 60, a retired press operator, of Enville Road, said: "We get a lot of problems from heavy lorries coming up our road and it will be even worse if there is another quarry."

And Jayne Thornton, a former teacher of Clover Lane, on Heathbrook Farm estate, said: "There's a lot of mud on the road and I've had several near misses when my brakes have locked on it."

Another resident, Ian Jury, aged 45, of Brook Street, Wall Heath, said: "From the back of my house I can see the spoil mounting up from the existing quarry and it interferes with my TV and mobile phone reception."

As well as fighting the plans for the new quarry, the residents are also opposing FG Davis's application to extend the use of the Enville Road quarry by three years.

Mr Tyler said: "That quarry was supposed to close after 15 years but it opened in 1953."

He added that the quarry was supposed to be limited to 120 lorry "movements" to and from the site per day – but that the campaigners had counted 40 movements an hour.