Peak residents question quarry restoration plans

An application to restore a disused Peak District quarry has come under fire from concerned residents.

The decision by Peak District National Park Authority to grant planning permission to Birchover Stone Ltd to move waste between quarries in the national park set alarm bells ringing for some residents.

In September the authority gave permission for the import of ‘quarry spoil from Birchover Quarry for final restoration of the upper part of Barton Hill Quarry, restoration of disturbed land within an area of the former Dungeon Quarry, and provision and use of a temporary haul route for dumpers, land at Barton Hill Quarry, Dungeon Quarry and Birchover Quarry’.

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In 2002 a deed was signed by the landowners revoking the right to extract stone or dump waste in Dungeon Quarry, Birchover.

This was done as an agreement to allow the quarry company the right to extract stone at New Pilhough Quarry.

Commenting on the plan to carry out work at Dungeon Quarry, Stanton-in-the-Peak resident Anne Zoyroydi said: “In 2002 it was in the public interest to protect this sensitive site intact.

“Restoration works were done at that time and it was allowed to return to nature.

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“So how come in 2013 it’s labelled a derelict quarry and it’s in the public interest to tear it apart and reshape it?”

David Bent, minerals team manager for the authority, said: “The proposed development in Dungeon Quarry is to undertake some minor re-grading works of the existing current landform, without any further quarry waste being taken into the site, to improve the final landform profile and facilitate the development of a new public footpath between Birchover village and the car park at the top of the hill, opposite Birchover Quarry.”

He maintained that any quarry waste would be dumped in Barton Hill Quarry and not Dungeon Quarry, adding: “The revocation holds firm and there are no proposals to resume the winning and working of gritstone or any quarry waste depositing within Dungeon Quarry – the proposals in the application relate solely to the restoration (tidying-up) of the remaining despoiled part of Dungeon Quarry.”