Plans to double quarry lorries through Midhurst

NEW plans which would double the daily number of lorries to the controversial Pendean sand quarry at West Lavington have been unveiled.

Inert Recycling UK want to increase the number of lorries allowed to and from the site from an average of 14 a day to 44.

A plan to increase lorry movements from 14 to 50 a day was refused by the national park authority before Christmas.

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It was felt Inert had not shown there was a need for the big increase and it would give rise to an ‘unreasonable level of disturbance to the detriment of local residents’.

The issue of lorry movements to the quarry has set Midhurst residents against villagers in West Lavington.

Many villagers feel it is worth putting up with significantly increased lorry movement to get the quarry infilled more quickly.

But Midhurst town councillors objected to the previous increase because they said the lorries were damaging the town’s roads and increasing noise and dust pollution. They are likely to continue objecting to the new plan after saying they would ‘stick to their guns’ in opposing more lorry movements.

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They claimed the needs of the wider area should come before the minority of villagers at West Lavington.

Submitting the latest plan which would mean a maximum of 220 lorries travelling to and from the Pendean site, Inert says since the quarry face stabilisation work started in January 2014 ‘there has been and continues to be, high availability of inert waste arising from construction and excavation projects that can be put to a beneficial use’.

In a statement to the national park the company said it wanted permission for more lorries so that if this continued they could finish the quarry work sooner than the six years envisaged.

Since the start of the work Inert had found the present planning condition ‘restrictive and not compatible with the demand in the local market’.

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