Sand working in Hampshire
Environmental pressure group, the South Downs Society, has today called on construction giant Tarmac to respect the recent government decision to confirm the boundary for the South Downs National Park and give up on its efforts to open up a major sand working in the north west of the Park near Bordon in Hampshire.
“ We know that Tarmac lost their battle to get this site left out of the national park and they should now give up on their attempt to dig a vast hole in this beautiful part of the Downs”, says Society Planning Officer, Steve Ankers. “With the setting up of the new Park Authority just around the corner, Tarmac are clearly set on getting something through the back door before it’s too late. But the recession means that we don’t now need so much sand and there are alternative sites outside the park. There’s already a lot of opposition to this locally and among environmental bodies and they’ll have a major fight on their hands.”
A planning application for the site, near the villages of Kingsley and Oakhanger, is anticipated in September and will be made to Hampshire County Council, with the South Downs National Park Authority not fully operational until spring 2011. Campaigners say this would be a disastrous precedent for this and other national parks, turning a beautiful landscape into a working quarry for decades, then leaving a deep and sterile water-filled pit. Local opposition is being co-ordinated by the Save Our Local Countryside campaign, with support from the South Downs Society and other green groups. Tarmac say the soft sand will be used for sports grounds and construction.