Stancliffe stone are assuring customers there will be no disruption to supplies of their sandstone as the result of the occupation of one of their quarries in the Peak District National Park.

The quarry has existing planning permission and Stancliffe plan to re-open it to secure supplies of sandstone for the next 40 years, but it is not actually in production at the moment and Stancliffe say they have plenty of reserves at their existing quarry to satisfy current demand for many years. "There\'s no question of a shortage of supply," says Brian Wallace, the managing director of Stancliffe.

The protestors, who he says are "more like squatters than protestors", have been at the site for four years. They say they have built hundreds of metres of tunnels and a network of treehouses and that it will cost millions of pounds to move them.

Nevetheless, Brian Wallace says: "If they choose to continue in the manner they have been we will be forced to take the appropriate action to evict them."

He said the safety of all concerned was paramount - and that included the squatters, who he doubted had paid much attention to health and safety regulations in their tunnel digging and aerial developments.

The dispute has been given national newspaper and regional television coverage and highlights once again the conflict between the conservation of the built heritage and the countryside.

The stone buildings of the Peak District are part of the area\'s attraction. In order to maintain the existing buildings and the tradition of stone building, the stone has to be extracted. Most of the stone from the quarry would be used in the Peak District, Derby and Manchester.

Planning permission on the site was granted in 1952 and runs until 2042. The area to be worked is within the footprint of the abandoned and overgrown quarries of Lees Cross and Stanton Lees and Stancliffe have volunteered to transfer restrictions from their existing quarry to the site.

The reserves on the site are estimated to be 3.2million tonnes, which Stancliffe confidently expect to last the 40 years of outstanding planning consent. Stancliffe currently produce 60-70,000 tonnes of stone a year.

The quarry would be restored progressively, which is part of the package Stancliffe are negotiating with the Peak District Mineral Planning Authority, which has until 2 April to determine the working conditions. Brian Wallace says a detailed environmental assessment has been carried out and shows that quarrying would have a minimal impact on the environment.

Most of the stone winning at the quarry would involve hydraulic splitting, although a small amount of black powder would be used to push the blocks away from the face. The blocks would be lifted on to lorries for transporting to Grange Hill to be processed.

One of the reasons the protestors do not want the quarry re-opened is because of its proximity to a stone circle known as Nine Ladies, but Brian Wallace says the quarry will not come within the length of two football pitches of the stone circle and will be screened from it by trees all round.

When it is up and running there will be seven or eight people working in the quarry, although the stone they produce supports the jobs of 68 other people involved in the processing, transporting and selling of it.

Stancliffe have consulted with local residents, 200 of whom attended a public meeting about the development. "People were quite relaxed about it when a lot of the misinformation had been disposed of," said Brian Wallace afterwards.