Securing the future at StanwayLafarge Tarmac is the UK’s leading sustainable building materials and construction solutions company. We have successfully operated at Stanway Quarry for nearly 50 years – the quarry opened in 1969.

Our site provides direct jobs for 26 local people and seven hauliers as well as supporting many other local businesses as part of its supply chain. Stanway Quarry is an important source of sand and gravel for construction projects across the east of England and into London.

The quarry contributes £1.1m each year into the economy through taxes, business rates and aggregates levy contributions.

In order to continue working at Stanway and protect local jobs, we need to extend our operations to the north of the existing quarry into a site at Five Ways Fruit Farm. The extension to the current site would allow us to continue using the existing quarry processing plant, the dedicated access onto Warren Lane and the on-site Readymix concrete plants.

Local supply meeting regional demandStanway Quarry supplies circa 500,000 tonnes of high-quality sand and gravel products each year to meet a variety of end uses. This location is an important strategic hub for Lafarge Tarmac, and produces a wide range of construction materials such as sands and gravels for concrete, soft building sand, asphalt sand, drainage and pipe bedding media, block paving sands and sports/horticultural sands, all of which rely on the high quality sand and gravel deposit found in the area.

Some of our aggregates are used on site to make ready mixed concrete, and dry silo mortar, as well as some specialist products such as our ‘Mastertint’ coloured asphalts. Stanway is also a source of recycled aggregates, where inert demolition materials are brought in and processed for re-use into new products.

The materials produced at Stanway have been used in major local projects including Abberton Reservoir, Colchester United Football Club and the rebuilding of Colchester Garrison. It also provides the materials for local housing and road schemes, as well as countless smaller building jobs. Some of our products are transported further afield by rail, using our rail sidings at Marks Tey, and have been used in high profile projects at locations such as Heathrow and Stansted airports. Our horticultural products have successfully been used in the development of football pitches including West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur.

Stanway Quarry has successfully operated in accordance with existing planning and environmental conditions. It has held both a British Standards Institute (BSI) ISO 14001 environmental management system and an ISO 9001 quality management scheme accreditation for more than 10 years.

Our plans for StanwayTo enable us to maintain operations, continue to supply materials and safeguard local jobs for the future, we have drawn up plans to extend the quarry into a site at Five Ways Fruit Farm.

The 38 acre (15.5 ha) extension site has already been identified by Essex County Council as a preferred site for future sand and gravel extraction in its draft Replacement Minerals Local Plan (RMLP) which has now reached an advanced stage in its preparation.

If the revised application is approved by Essex County Council, it will help safeguard the jobs of 26 direct employees and seven on-site hauliers, as well as maintain continuity of supply for the local construction industry and reliant businesses.

Our proposals also include an updated restoration scheme for the existing quarry. Extraction within much of the quarry has been completed and we have considered an alternative restoration strategy for the completed areas along with the rest of the quarry.

We have successfully operated at Stanway Quarry in Colchester for nearly 50 years. The quarry provides local jobs and is an important source of high quality materials for construction projects across the east of England and into London.

LafargE TarmaC STanWay QuarryProposals for site extension and restoration

Proposed restoration scheme

Development detailThe existing quarry at Stanway is around 190 acres (77 ha) in size. Our proposed extension area amounts to 38 acres (15.5 ha) at Five Ways Fruit Farm, and comprises just under 3 million tonnes of accessible reserves of sand and gravel from the Kesgrave and Anglian sand and gravel deposit . We are proposing a seven year time frame to work and restore this extension area. Six years to work the extension area with a further year to complete the restoration of the last phase. Extraction would occur in phases with restoration following closely behind, so the amount of land that is being worked at any one time will be minimised. Production levels at the site will remain in line with current output and this will continue over the six year extended extraction period.

Traffic managementWe will continue to use the same single entrance/exit via Warren Lane, and the preferred transport route for vehicles to access the next extension would be no different to the current approved routes.

There will be no additional traffic movements as a result of the site extension beyond those already permitted on site. In terms of the restoration, the new plans for restoring the site will result in significantly fewer vehicles entering and leaving the site in comparision to the historically approved restoration schemes for the site. Additionally, the volume of material required to achieve the proposed restoration is significantly less than the previous scheme proposed for the site.

Operating HoursStanway’s working hours are from 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday, and 7am to 1pm on Saturdays. No quarrying takes place on Sundays or Bank Holidays. We are not proposing any changes to these hours of operation, or increasing the rates of production.

In addition, our proposals do not include any intensification of on-site operations, or indeed an increase in output from the quarry. It is proposed that existing production and sales outputs are maintained at current levels.

assessment of the proposed developmentOur public exhibition of the proposals (held on 13 March 2014) is part of an on-going Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which we are carrying out. The main environmental aspects being assessed are:

• Landscape and visual impact • Traffic • Agriculture • Quarry stability • Ecology • Noise and dust • Archaeology • Surface and Ground Water

restoring the siteStanway Quarry would be restored to a wildlife-enhanced agricultural and water based landscape with improved public access and woodland planting for the people of Colchester and the surrounding communities to enjoy. The planning application proposals include a sympathetic restoration, which takes into account existing local wildlife and habitats.

The base level of the site currently sits below the local groundwater level. To complete a full restoration, we will raise the lower level of the site above the water table. This will involve using over two million m3 of inert material (e.g. soil, clay and materials from construction sites) over a 20 year period. This will raise much of the site above the water table and will not involve any domestic or non-hazardous type landfill materials.

This new plan reduces the amount of inert material needed by 40% compared to the current scheme. This will significantly reduce the total number of vehicle movements to and from the site over the 20 year period and result in earlier completion of the restoration scheme.

Our updated restoration proposals will include:

• The creation of habitats for nature conservation and greater biodiversity.

• Water features.

• Land for agricultural use.

• Greater public access to enjoy the newly landscaped setting.

The new quarry extension site into Fiveways Fruit Farm would be restored over a shorter timeframe and would not require any restoration materials to be brought in. The restoration scheme for the Fruit Farm area can be achieved by using existing materials (e.g. soil) within Stanway Quarry that are easily accessible but lie within the quarry site.

The next stepOnce we have completed a phase of public consultation, we will review people’s feedback and consider this alongside the results from the EIA. We will then submit a planning application and Environmental Statement to Essex County Council in late Spring 2014.

Your views are important to us, so if you wish to comment on the proposals you can do so by filling in the comment form below, responding via our website at www.lafargetarmac.com/stanway or by writing to Lafarge Tarmac at the following address:

Warren Lane, Stanway, Colchester, Essex, CO3 0nn

Please mark correspondence for the attention of the consultation team, or alternatively email us at: stanway.feedback@lafargetarmac.com.

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www.lafargetarmac.com/stanway