26th July 2010
Ian Askew,
Spatial Planning Team Leader,
Highways Agency,
The Cube,
199 Wharfside Street,
Birmingham.
B1 1RN.
Dear Mr. Askew,
Proposed Extraction of Minerals with Restoration to Agriculture
Land at Mill Lane, Upper Strensham, Worcestershire
Planning Application No. 09/000085/CM
CEMEX UK Materials Ltd.
Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended)
I refer to the above and in particular to your colleague Serena Howell’s e-mail of the
13th July 2011.
The above planning application was submitted in October 2009, itself a revision of
an application (application no. 407619) submitted in March 2005 (and withdrawn in
April 2008) for a very similar development. The main revision of relevance between
the two applications is the means of access. Originally it was proposed to access
the site via Mill Lane and through the village of Upper Strensham, but this element of
the proposed development resulted in a considerable number of objections from the
residents of Upper Strensham, the Parish Council and the Highways Authority (see
memo dated 18th October 2005 appended). On the basis of the extent and nature of
these objections the Company was requested by the Minerals Planning Authority
(MPA) to withdraw the application.
The revised application sought to mitigate this issue by proposing that the site be
accessed directly from Junction 8 of the M5, allowing all HGV traffic using the quarry
to bypass Upper Strensham, reaching Ryall House Farm Quarry via the M50 and
A38. HGVs would only use this route as no sales direct from site are proposed; the
‘as raised’ sand and gravel would be hauled on a campaign basis directly from
Strensham Quarry to Ryall House Farm Quarry for processing.
A departure from Highways Agency policy is sought to allow the construction of a
temporary dedicated access from Junction 8 of the M5 into the proposed Strensham
Quarry. Drawing no. SN 02_16 illustrates the Company’s access proposals. The
proposed development was considered to be EIA development for the purposes of
CEMEX UK Materials Limited
Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, Warley, West Midlands B69 4RJ
Phone: +44 (0)121 569 7459
www.cemex.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales: Company Number 4895833 Registered Office: CEMEX House, Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey TW20 8TD, United
Kingdom
the above Act, and as a result the application was accompanied by an
Environmental Statement. Also appended is Chapter 6.0 of this Statement which
describes in more detail the Company’s proposals regards access, its anticipated
usage, the predicted environmental impact and proposed mitigation measures. A
Traffic Statement was commissioned in support of the EIA (Appendix B), and this is
also appended. As a result of comments made by the Highways Agency dated 16 th
March 2010 the Company commissioned a Phase 1 safety audit, a copy of which is
also appended.
The reasoning behind seeking a departure is that the proposed arrangements
appear to be the only realisable solution to gaining access to the site and therefore
realising the aggregate contained within a site identified by Policy 1 of the Hereford
and Worcester Minerals Local Plan (the extant Development Plan) as being suitable
in principle for mineral extraction. MPS1: Planning and Minerals 2006, Annex A,
paragraph 4.1 establishes that MPAs, including Worcestershire, should provide a
landbank of sand and gravel with planning permission for its extraction of at least
seven years. This commitment is reiterated by Policy M.1 of the Worcestershire
Structure Plan.
At present the most up to date assessment of the landbank for sand and gravel
within Worcestershire is the West Midlands Regional Aggregate Working Party’s
(WMRAWP) Annual Report for 2009. Within Table 4.3 of that report it estimates that
on the 31st December 2009 the County possessed a sand and gravel landbank of
3.65 million tonnes (or 4.19 years). Table 3.2 of the report states that the subregional apportionment for the County’s sand and gravel production remains 0.871
million tonnes per annum. This equates to 72 583 tonnes per month. On the
assumption that the sub-regional apportionment figure continues to represent annual
production rates for the period 1st January 2010 to 31st July 2011 it is estimated that
the sand and gravel landbank as of the latter date is 2.27 million tonnes, provided
that no planning permissions have been granted for the extraction of sand and
gravel in the County in the intervening period. The Company is not aware of any
planning permissions for the wining and working of sand and gravel having been
approved by either the MPA or the Secretary of State during that period. On this
basis, therefore, it is estimated that the landbank for sand and gravel within the
County as of the 31st July 2011 is 2.27 million tonnes, or 2.6 years, substantially less
than the national and County policy aim of providing a landbank of sand and gravel
extraction planning permissions of at least seven years.
The Minerals Local Plan was adopted in 1997 and relates to the pre-local
government boundaries of Hereford and Worcester County Council. Of the sites the
Plan identifies as suitable in principle for the extraction of sand and gravel, eight lie
within what is now Worcestershire. Of these, two have either been worked out or
are in the process of being worked. A third contains insufficient mineral for it to be
economically viable and a fourth is landlocked with no viable road access. Three
more, despite having been identified by the Minerals Local Plan since 1997, have
never been subject to a planning application for mineral extraction. The application
CEMEX UK Materials Limited
Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, Warley, West Midlands B69 4RJ
Phone: +44 (0)121 569 7459
www.cemex.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales: Company Number 4895833 Registered Office: CEMEX House, Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey TW20 8TD, United
Kingdom
site is the eighth. The County Council has yet to commence work on its Mineral
Development Framework, citing a start date of “late 2011”.
It can be seen, therefore, that the County faces an impending chronic shortage of
supply of sand and gravel and that to date many of the sites identified by the
Development Plan have either been worked or proven unattractive to the industry.
There is little likelihood of a Minerals Development Framework becoming available in
anything other than the long term which would identify how this situation may be
remedied. The application site contains approximately six months of production of
sand and gravel within the County, which will increase the County’s sand and gravel
landbank by around 18%. Based on the proposed rate of extraction of 50,000
tonnes per annum the site would be worked over a period of 8 years. The benefit of
the development proposed, therefore, is that it will allow the Company to make a
modest but significant contribution to alleviating a chronic shortage in supply of sand
and gravel in Worcestershire from a site which has been identified by the
Development Plan for the purpose, and which appears, in broad terms, to
acceptable to the Minerals Planning Authority.
Other means of access from the site have been considered. The original application
proposed an access via unclassified roads to the A38 at Ryall, passing through
Upper Strensham village. As discussed above, this attracted substantial objection
from residents of the village and was not considered a suitable route by the
Highways Authority. During the course of the original application barging via the
Rivers Avon and Severn was also considered, as the Company has a barge
unloading facility at Ryall House Farm Quarry. This was rejected as a combination
of the limited payload of barges that would have to be used (due to navigational
constraints at Tewksbury) when compared to those currently used to carry sand and
gravel from Ripple Quarry to Ryall House Farm, and the distance that would have to
be travelled render such an approach uneconomic. It appears, therefore, to the
Company that the only acceptable and economically feasible way to access the
above application site is as proposed.
In summary, the above Company propose to construct a temporary access onto
Junction 8 of the M5 for a period of eight years to facilitate access to a proposed
sand and gravel quarry. Drawing no. SN 02_16 illustrates the Company’s access
proposals: 
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it is proposed to export approximately 50 000 tonnes of ‘as raised’
sand and gravel per year on a campaign basis to Ryall House Farm
Quarry. The whole development is estimated to have a life of eight
years, after which the access would be closed and restored;
all HGVs will follow a route from the junction, along the M50 to
Junction 1, taking the A38 northbound to Ryall House Farm Quarry.
There will be no off site sales or third party collections, as such all
vehicle movements will be wholly under Company control. Any light
vehicle access would be via Mill Lane and the existing agricultural
access;
CEMEX UK Materials Limited
Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, Warley, West Midlands B69 4RJ
Phone: +44 (0)121 569 7459
www.cemex.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales: Company Number 4895833 Registered Office: CEMEX House, Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey TW20 8TD, United
Kingdom
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the proposal is likely to generate no more than two HGV movements
per hour, dependant on vehicle payload, Monday to Friday and
Saturday mornings;
the access would be gated, and these gates would remain closed
and locked when the site is not operational. The gates will open into
the site in order that personnel do not have to enter the carriageway
to open the gates;
restricting access to the site to authorised personnel when it is
operational by installing a power barrier, most likely operated by a
‘swipe’ card issued to the vehicle driver;
providing sufficient space for unauthorised vehicles to turn around
and rejoin the public highway if an attempt is made to exit the
motorway using the proposed access;
providing a sufficient area between the public highway and the
barrier to allow vehicles to wait (to operate the barrier or allow a
vehicle leaving the site to pass, for instance) without fouling the
public highway;
hardsurfacing the first 140m of the access from the public highway,
with an overall access length of greater than 0.5 km. This, coupled
with the hardsurfacing referred to above, will ensure that no mud is
deposited on the public highway;
all laden vehicles leaving the site will be sheeted to prevent spillage;
the Company would also be prepared to erect signage as
appropriate on the public highway as agreed with the Highways
Agency, and;
the Company has commissioned a Phase 1 Safety Audit of its
proposed access onto Junction 8 of the M5 (see attached). This has
concluded that while the proposed access does introduce limited
potential for conflict with weaving, this potential is significantly less
than that which occurs between the M5 northbound and M50
sliproads. The exceptional loads waiting area within the central
island of the junction is assumed to attract much larger and slower
moving vehicles than would the access proposed by the Company.
It is requested, therefore, that a departure to policy regards the construction of
accesses into the motorway network be granted to facilitate the recovery of 405 000
tonnes of sand and gravel over an eight year period, contributing to the limited
supplies of such material within Worcestershire. If the proposed access is not able
to be built, it is highly likely that this otherwise acceptable resource will be sterilised.
Please find enclosed the following documents: 
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memo from the Highway Authority to the Minerals Planning Authority
relating to the original planning application no. 407619 dated 18th October
2005;
drawing no. SN 02_16;
CEMEX UK Materials Limited
Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, Warley, West Midlands B69 4RJ
Phone: +44 (0)121 569 7459
www.cemex.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales: Company Number 4895833 Registered Office: CEMEX House, Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey TW20 8TD, United
Kingdom
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Chapter 6.0 of the ES submitted in accompaniment to the above planning
application relating to traffic and transport issues;
a copy of the Traffic Statement upon which the EIA was based, and
appended as Appendix B to the ES, and;
a Phase 1 safety audit of the Company’s access proposals commissioned
as a result of comments made by the Highways Agency in a letter dated
16th March 2010 to the Minerals Planning Authority.
If you require any further information or clarification of any issue raised by the
enclosed please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Shaun D Denny
Regional Planner – Western Region
CEMEX UK Materials Limited
Wolverhampton Road, Oldbury, Warley, West Midlands B69 4RJ
Phone: +44 (0)121 569 7459
www.cemex.co.uk
Registered in England and Wales: Company Number 4895833 Registered Office: CEMEX House, Coldharbour Lane, Thorpe, Egham, Surrey TW20 8TD, United
Kingdom