The fight to stop historic parkland in Waveney being turned into a quarry has taken another turn after council officials said they would look again at the road element of the plan.
The fight to stop historic parkland in Waveney being turned into a quarry has taken another turn after council officials said they would look again at the road element of the plan.
Campaigners have continued to fight the idea of a sand and gravel pit on the Ditchingham Estate, near Bungay, despite a planning application having been withdrawn earlier this year.
Protest group Enraged (Norfolk residents against gravel extraction in Ditchingham) has continued working against the quarry idea in the expectation that aggregates firm Lafarge, whose original application last summer was withdrawn in February, could try again as soon as November. Members of the group said they felt the main road past the site, the B1332, was not up to carrying dozens of heavy lorries.
But experts at Norfolk's highways authority said they believed the road - narrow and twisting in places - would be capable of handling extra traffic.
Now the authority has revealed that any new application by Lafarge would trigger a fresh look at the road situation.
Jonathan Chadd, from Enraged, said the promise of a new assessment, which would be made if Lafarge submitted a new application, was an important step forward.
Tim Edmunds, development control adviser for Norfolk highways author-ity, said that while the original assessment was carried out professionally, some of the paperwork was not filled in correctly.
“We have advised Lafarge that some internal procedures weren't followed correctly and, should they resubmit, a different officer will look at the new applications afresh,” he said.
Alan Burrell, county councillor for Ditchingham, said: “I am confident that Lafarge and the Ditchingham Estate will realise that any future application for a quarry on this site in the face of so many objections would be unwise and a waste of time and money.”
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