Swanworth Quarry is a long-established limestone aggregate quarry supplying over half the quarried limestone in Dorset. Reserves of limestone were rapidly running out and would soon be exhausted. The quarry location within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and close to the Purbeck World Heritage Coast designation as well as several important ecological and archaeological designations posed significant complications
Challenges:
- To secure a site allocation for further quarrying in the Mineral Plan review.
- Site location in sensitive landscape with significant visual, ecological and cultural heritage constraints.
Quarryplan Involvement:
- Design of major quarry extension scheme.
- Promotion of extension area to the review of the Mineral Plan.
- Identifying Very Special Circumstances to justify inclusion in the Mineral Plan.
- Project managing a detailed and highly technical EIA for the extension area development
Outcome:
- Initially secured the only limestone aggregate allocation in the new Dorset Mineral Plan.
- Subsequently secured planning permission for the extension area without objections from statutory consultees and with the unanimous support of the planning committee.
- Site life extended by almost 30 years
