Marshalls seeks planning permission to extend Moseldon Quarry
Marshalls of Southowram, West Yorkshire, wants to extend one its three sandstone quarries in West Yorkshire. It has applied for planning permission to extend Moseldon quarry at Scammonden on to what is currently farmland.
The stone from Moseldon has been used on many prestigious paving projects, including Whitehall in London, where it can be seen in front of 10 Downing Street and the Cenotaph.
Marshalls now wants to extend the quarry to maintain supplies of this sought after sandstone for use as paving slabs and building stone. The proposed extension of the quarry would increase reserves of the stone from 143,000tonnes to 230,000tonnes, which would be extracted over the next 27 years.
If the application for planning permission is approved, it will expand the site’s quarrying area from 8.5hectares to 12.91hectares.
Marshalls says in a planning statement that the extension of the quarry would have benefits both from the point of view of securing jobs and helping to maintain the trend of using natural stone in construction work.It says that “… in the terms of the National Planning Policy Framework, [this stone] is of local and national importance to heritage assets and local distinctiveness”. It says the extension will “… enable the overall site to be restored to a landform and uses which are more in keeping with the locality and which will help to increase local biodiversity”.
The application is open to public comment to Kirklees Council until September 16.