Backdale & Longstone Edge

Backdale Quarry is now rightly seen as the national test case of all that is wrong with quarrying in National Parks. Over the past year it has attracted much media attention culminating in national TV and radio coverage in the run up to the Peak District National Park Authority's decision, with help from DEFRA (the government department with responsibility for environment, countryside and national parks), to serve a 'Stop Notice'. This form of planning order prevents all illegal activity on site, pending either a planning inquiry or a Court case. Illegal work at the site finally stopped in January 2006.

Backdale Quarry has been worked as a quarry – removing limestone aggregate – since the late 1980s and the area forms part of a very large 'old mineral permission' (OMP) dating from 1952. However the permission was originally granted for extracting the rare vein minerals of fluorspar and barytes but it also allowed for any lead or other minerals (this would include limestone) to be extracted ‘in the course of’ extracting the fluorspar and barytes. This is because host rock limestone on either side of the vein has to be excavated to expose the vertical veins of fluorspar. However at Backdale, very little vein material remains yet an enormous limestone quarry has been created with many faces developed where there is no evidence of fluorspar veins.

Local environmental groups first became concerned in the late 1990s when a major UK quarrying company, RMC, took a lease on the site and started extracting large quantities of limestone. They also planned for a massive extension of the site which would have robbed the hillside of 12 million tonnes of limestone whilst searching out very minor reserves of fluorspar. Pressure by the National Park Authority and a strong local campaign embarrassed RMC into quitting the site in 1998 with the plan unimplemented.

Unfortunately in July 2003, the landowner (Bleaklow Industries Ltd) found a less scrupulous operator – Merrimans – to continue the quarrying operation. Since then they have extracted over 500,000 tonnes of limestone and only 11,500 tonnes of fluorspar. This is ridiculous for a permission aimed predominantly at fluorspar extraction but the impact on the landscape of Longstone Edge has been much more serious. The site was already scarred by RMC’s activities but the visual impact has now been doubled by the quarry extending westwards along the wooded scarp towards Hassop Common. Part of the eastern part of the Edge, which previously shielded views of the back faces of the quarry, has also been cynically razed despite plans stating that this would be left as a screening feature.

The Friends, working closely with local campaigners, the Save Longstone Edge Group (SLEG), have lobbied the National Park Authority to take decisive action and stop the working as soon as possible. In November 2004 the NPA served a ‘planning enforcement notice’ (PEN) but this was immediately appealed by Bleaklow and Merrimans, which allowed them to continue working until the issue had been settled by a public inquiry. This was set for September 2005 but was immediately adjourned to April 2006 on the grounds that insufficient time(3 days) had been allocated to hear the complex case. Given this delay, the NPA decided that working could not be allowed to continue and served the Stop Notice in January 2006. In the lastest development, a legal challenge to the PEN was successful and the inquiry had to be cancelled. The Park now intends to issue a new PEN and Stop Notice to stop quarrying resuming and it is expected that the case will have to be settled in the High Court. See Press Release dated 27th April 2007.

Latest news on Backdale

On Friday 7 March, Justice Sullivan – a High Court judge – ruled that the Backdale Public Inquiry decision was unsound, following an appeal by the landowner (Bleaklow Industries) and operator (MMC Midland Ltd). The case has now been ‘remitted’ (sent back) to the Government department responsible for planning issues via the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (CLG). This means that the Government, and more specifically, the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) have to make a new inquiry decision, taking into account the Judge’s views.

How you can help*** We urge everyone concerned about Backdale and the future of the landscape at Longstone Edge to write directly (or via your MP) to Hazel Blears and also to Hilary Benn, Secretary of State at DEFRA (the Government department responsible for National Parks) to add your voice to underline the need to appeal. To help you we have composed a letter template which you are free to download if you wish. (Adobe pdf format - opens in a new window)

Previously, of course, the Inspector had sided with the views of the National Park Authority, ourselves and the Save Longstone Edge Group and ruled that any limestone removed in excess of a 2:1 ratio (limestone:fluorspar) was illegal. The Judge has indicated that this is unsound and that the amount of limestone removed is a primarily a commercial matter for the operator. Clearly this raises the spectre of a huge, mostly limestone, quarry being opened up at the eastern end of Longstone edge.

In our view, the Judge’s conclusions were based on a very simple reading of the original text of the permission which seem to be at odds with recent decisions (for example a Ministerial dismissal of an appeal at a small fluorspar site above Bradwell, Smalldale Head, where the Secretary of State decided that no limestone could be sold off site) which have looked very carefully at the ‘fine print’ of old permissions and the circumstances surrounding them being granted – including the National Park context.

Together with other campaign groups (SLEG, the British Mountaineering Council, the Campaign for National Parks) we are now calling for Hazel Blears, Secretary of State at CLG, to challenge the judgment by way of an appeal to the Court of Appeal.
***See above for how to help.

Picture top left: Backdale Quarry, Longstone Edge