Tarmac appeal Thornborough Quarry decision

[George]

Tarmac appeal Thornborough Quarry decision

5th July 2006

Tarmac Northern Ltd, the firm quarrying the Thornborough Neolithic
monument complex has announced that it has lodged an appeal regarding
its rejected bid to extend quarrying within the ancient site.

The application, to extract sand and gravel from an area on
Thornborough Moor known as Ladybridge Farm was rejected by council
planners in February because the site contains nationally important
archaeology that planning guidelines protect against such activities.

Tarmac, who have been quarrying the Thornborough Complex for ten years
or so have shown dogmatic determination to continue quarrying in the
Thornborough Complex, destroying what English Heritage describe as a
site of "World Heritage class", "the most important ancient site
between Stonehenge and the Orkneys" and this latest move comes as no
surprise to pro-heritage campaign group TimeWatch.

"There's massive amounts of gravel all over North Yorkshire but Tarmac
are determined that the Thornborough Complex should continue to be
quarried, even though the application has been shown to be contrary to
council policy on several counts" Said George Chaplin, Chairman of
TimeWatch "There is no need for the gravel, the application is not in
a preferred area for quarrying and it will destroy nationally
important archaeology"

"Our concern is that the appeal is simply on grounds that the council
did not properly follows planning process; Tarmac may be granted the
application not because it is right to do so, but because they can
afford very expensive lawyers".

TimeWatch believe that it is time for the British Government to
intervene, potentially to purchase the land that holds the complex in
order to prevent Tarmac from quarrying the site or its tenant farmers
from ploughing away the archaeological remains.

The group have set up a petition aimed at the British Government which
they say all people concerned to preserve Britain's most important
ancient sites should sign:

http://www.petitiononline.com/TimeW1/petition.html

The group added that they felt this was an international issue and any
international signatures were welcome.

Further details about Thornborough are available on the TimeWatch
website at www.timewatch.org.