'Everybody is going to suffer': Campaigners say quarry would be devastating
The proposed opening of a quarry has been branded a ‘nightmare’ by protesters who are concerned about dust pollution and road safety.
Members of The Shipley Preservation Society are fighting plans for a 110-acre quarry off the A454 Bridgnorth Road, at Shipley, the main commuter route between Bridgnorth and Wolverhampton.
At a meeting on Monday night, they voiced concerns while planning their next steps ahead of June 22, which marks the end of a consultation period for the planning application.
Society members are to lobby the support of nearby parish councils and continue to highlight the potential impact of heavy goods vehicles going to and from the quarry.
The enterprise is proposed by JPE Holdings Ltd, and would replace Seisdon Quarry which is to close.
A decision is expected to be made on the planning application on June 31.
Society member Paul Kyle, aged 59, said: “If this quarry goes through it will be unliveable for me and my family.
"The dust and fumes off the lorries would be a nightmare. It is not needed. I think everybody is going to suffer.”
Fellow member Phil Nicholls, who has lived in the area for 15 years, has concerns over road safety.
He said: “The A454 has always been a very bad road for fatalities and serious injuries.
“Some of these lorries, they just crawl along. They are not built to go faster and hence people will overtake them.
“It is a recipe for danger, this road has always been that way.
“What they are trying to do now, putting 100 wagons on this road back and forth, it is going to be horrendous,” he said.
Wildlife and woodland
Members also voiced fears over the quarry’s impact on wildlife. The quarry would sit adjacent to ancient woodland called Alder Wood.
Shropshire Wildlife Trust and The Woodland Trust have already raised concerns over the quarry’s projected impact on the woodland.
At Monday’s meeting, Andrew Haden, 52, said: “That would be the heartbreaking thing – it is an area where there is not that much human activity and there is so much of nature there that we should just leave it alone. It is going to be devastating.”
Quarry applicant JPE Holdings Ltd is proposing to extract a sand and gravel mineral resource from the land – with the site proposed to replace mineral extraction operations at Seisdon Quarry.
In February, Steven Birch, JPE Holdings Ltd managing director, said that heavy goods vehicle movements would ‘continue to form a very small proportion of overall traffic flows’ on the A454.
He added: “The proposals allow for direct access to the A454 rather than via local rural roads, which should improve the situation for local villages.”
The meeting comes as a petition which was launched to oppose the plans neared 1,000 signatures.
Worfield and Rudge Parish Council has already objected to the proposed development.
The application was submitted back in November 2017.
