UK mining firm Glebe Mines has been granted permission to blast a new 45-metre-deep quarry in a Dales hillside – despite protests from residents, walkers and conservationists. Peak Park council members narrowly backed the bid to extract 660,000 tonnes of fluorspar from Tearsall Quarry near Wensley in Derbyshire after a five-hour meeting at the Bakewell Agricultural Business Centre on Friday.
Glebe will stop mining at Longstone Edge near Calver for four years, in exchange for being allowed to open a new 10.4 hectare open pit near Wensley.
Several villagers, an independent ecologist, Friends of the Peak District, Save Longstone Edge and Save Wensley Hillside pleaded with members to block the unusual deal – which officers and members admitted broke conservation guidelines.
Fears included noise, vibrations, pollution, dust, safety, access issues, impact on livestock, threat to tourism and visual and archaeological harm.
Henry Folkard, from the British Mountaineering Council, said: "The company's economic convenience isn't a valid argument for destroying the national park along the way.
"Mineral operators have to start looking to dig underground and should be encouraged to so as soon as possible."
Peak District National Park Authority chairman Narendra Bajaria objected to the new quarry, which he said threatened the park's position as a "national treasure."
Mr Bajaria said: "We are going to set aside our own well-considered policies. That is the price we are being asked to pay for a four year stay of execution and that's all it would be, let's make no bones about it.
"Are we not paying a high price for what we are getting from it? The community benefit is far less than I would have expected."
But Glebe Mines bosses said the new mine was vital to keeping 1,500 workers – including 67 in the Dales – in their jobs.
And general manager Gary Goodyear said refusal of the plans could have knock-on effects at Longstone Edge.
"I believe we have the right to mine at Peak Pasture (Longstone Edge) right now.
"We're not sure what that would remove and there's been quite a bit of limestone removed to get fluorspar already. But we could move quite quickly if we needed to," Mr Goodyear added.
Members approved officers' recommendation to back the plans, by ten votes to eight.
The Peak District National Park Authority received 435 letters backing Glebe's proposals, and 2,269 against before Friday's meeting.
Source: Matlock Mercury
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