Over 100 objections have been submitted to the Isle of Wight Council in response to the planning application by Wight Building Materials to extract gravel at Palmers Farm in Wootton.
Outlining many detailed and material arguments against the proposed plans, objections have come not just from local residents, but also from organisations such as Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and CYCLEWight, as well as regular visitors to the area.
The lack of any full and independent Environmental Impact Assessment was cited by many as of particular concern. Natural England has stated the application does not contain enough information to determine the impact of potentially significant effects on the Solent & Southampton Water Special Protection Area (SPA), the internationally important wild bird habitat identified by the Ramsar convention, the Solent Maritime Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and the Kings Quay Shore Site of Special Scientific Interest.
The parish councils for Wootton, Whippingham and Arreton have all strongly objected to the plans. In addition to the environmental concerns, they raised numerous issues regarding the impact in terms of noise and pollution to residents, the unsuitability of the roads in question for 50 movements a day by HGVs, overall road safety and particular risk to horse riders, walkers, and cyclists.
Wootton Councillor Daryl Pitcher explains:
“I have been a strong objector to these plans from the outset and I hope the reasoned voices of so many local residents will be listened to by the planning committee. As I have said before this is absolutely the wrong scheme in the wrong place.”
A spokesperson for Wootton, Whippingham and Arreton Against Gravel Extraction (WAGE) has said:
“We acknowledge there were also a number of supporting comments submitted from non-local Islanders. Many of the these comments were made on the basis that gravel extraction at Palmers Farm is the most environmentally friendly option. Yet they make no mention whatsoever of the ability to increase the use of recycled aggregates for which the island has capacity to process 180,000 tonnes a year. Many also cite the only alternative would be to transport gravel hundreds of miles and ship it from the mainland. These arguments also ignore the fact that the Council’s own mineral assessments show that there are sand and gravel deposits in many areas on the Island and enough marine sand and gravel available to meet all the Island’s needs for decades to come.”
Article continues below this advertisement
A very powerful case for rejection.
Undoubtedly the council will now be in a fervour to grant permission.
It’s needed, no business would invest to do this if not and yes plenty of sand stone on beach but not allowed to remove. Why are so many against progress for the Island,no wind farms,no oil etc, one day there will be no work here and overun by gangs ,drugs and crime then it won’t be a nice place to live !.
So, you are happy to destroy the environment and deprive birds/insects and other creatures of their homes, just to dig up gravel – no they can import it from existing sites that are already in operation
I wonder where these people think that the gravel they all use in and around their houses in concrete and on their driveways etc comes from? I guess the answer is ‘Anywhere so long as it’s not extracted near me.’ And isn’t this exactly what the spokesperson for WAGE said, that they should and could extract it elsewhere on the Island? I think there’s been gravel pits in the Wootton area for at least 100 years which is probably a lot longer than most of the residents.
It does, unfortunately, come across as a typical NIMBY argument – we want the product but we don’t want the inconvenience of having it extracted near us.
We don’t want the mass building or the massive immigration which forces more houses in the UK and thus the Island
Stop having children then.
Quite agree, Mrs T. The trouble is, it’s self-perpetuating.
What mass building?
the village does not need more heavy large vehicles running down its High street.
It does need employment though.
NIMBY, instead of just complaing why not find workable solutions re look at a sea route by cutting a temporary type of inland Dock flat bottom barges can use the tides to remove the gravel to Cowes or Newport its not as farfetched as it may seem. What concerns me even more is build creep if the gravel and the new wild life habitat do not happen we will see attrition of the land to ” another 10 house here and five more there ” once housing is built the land is lost forever. DONT BRING PROBLEMS BRING SOLUTIONS!!
Wootton, Whippingham and Arreton? Wouldn’t that be WWAAAGE?
We live in Wootton. It was my daughter who noticed how many of the people with “WAGE” boards outside have gravel drives. Then it started me thinking about how many of our sudden “eco-warrior” neighbours will be going on plant based diets, losing their posh cars, stopping the holidays etc. I could go on. And the leaflet posted through my door suggested getting gravel from the sea bed, like that causes no damage. I agree with other comments about this mostly coming across as NIMBY behaviour, like all the other island no-sayers.