The National Park planning committee unanimously voted to approve revised proposals by Stancliffe Stone which would see them give up quarrying rights at Lees Cross and Endcliffe quarries for ever.

This is in exchange for an extension at their Dale View quarry.

Sara Barrett was one of the original campaigners and was in the meeting on Friday to see an end to all the hard work.

She said: "For many hard years we campaigned to protect Stanton Moor and to see Lees Cross and Endcliffe dormant and closed in perpetuity.
"We support this application as the total output has been reduced, lorry movements are to be restricted to 36 a day and there will be increased contributions to road mainatence.

"On balance we consider that the deal on offer is acceptable albeit it is not ideally what we would have wanted to see."

Stancliffe's revised proposal will allow them to extract an extra 946,000 tonnes from Dale View.

Planning committee chair Narendra Bajaria said: "After careful assessment we consider that the extension would do less damage than the re-opening of Lees Cross and Endcliffe and therefore offers net environmental benefit to the National Park."

A spokesman from the eco camp that has been in place since 1999 said: "Although we welcome the revocation of permissions at the more environmentally sensitive Lees Cross and Endcliffe site we still maintain our stance on the inequality of the deal as the tonnage has only been slightly reduced.

"We hope the remaining legal process leading to the revocation of permission will be short.

"Then we can start to remove the extensive network of structures and aerial and underground defences which have been built over the past eight years, take down our homes and leave the site."

As this would be a major development and departure from the Authority's policies, the planning committee was unable to make the final decision.

Its recommendation will now go before the full Authority on July 6, and if approved, to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.