Welton Aggregates’ quarry plans for Caistor given go-ahead by Lincolnshire County Council despite opposition

Plans to build a quarry in Caistor have been approved despite opposition from residents.

Welton Aggregates applied to Lincolnshire County Council for permission to excavate 150,000 tonnes of sand from land south of North Kelsey Road, Caistor.

The county council said it had received 130 comments - mostly negative - expressing fears that the quarry would create additional noise and dust in the area.

But the company behind the plans said it has listened to residents’ concerns and that the quarry is needed to meet the demand for ‘soft sand’ in the county.

Members of the county council’s planning and regulation meeting approved the proposal at a meeting on Monday (November 3).

The application was initially expected to be considered at a meeting on September 29, but it was deferred to allow Welton Aggregates time to address concerns about the potential impact of the roads and landscape in the area.

Coun Stephen Bunny (Liberal Democrat), who repesents the Market Rasen Wolds division, said the site could damage the existing roads in the area.

He said: “Lorries carrying sand from the proposed extraction site will travel along lanes through Caistor and historic villages.

“Neither of the roads will be designed for HGVs. Carriageways are narrow, often forcing traffic onto the pavement, creating a major risk for pedestrians and cyclists.”

Coun James Bean (Reform UK), who represents the North Wolds division, said he wasn’t convinced that the company had done enough to mitigate the potential impact to historic buildings in the area.

He said: “I would just like to say that I’m still of the opinion that the route through Caistor is not suitable for HGVs.

“The vibration from these vehicles could cause damage to listed buildings in what is a historic town.”

Agent Oliver Craven, who was representing Welton Aggregates, told councillors that the developer had put a number of conditions in place in response to residents’ concerns.

He said: “The applicant has acknowledged the concerns raised at the previous meeting and has agreed that they’re amenable to enter into a routing agreement to avoid the southern route which was previously proposed.

“There’s also an additional planning condition to limit the number of HGVs both, daily and weekly, and provide a robust framework that can obviously monitor the site.”

Mr Craven went on to say that the quarry will meet the need for soft sand in Lincolnshire.

He added: “It is important to recognise that this is a source of building sand as well. The building and plastering sand which we often refer to as soft sand.

“The closure of the previous Breedon site, which I believe operated until about 2020 or 2021, has left the county without a supply of soft sand and it’s for this reason, to meet this need, that the site was actually allocated in the local plan.”

Coun Matthew Boles (Liberal Democrat), who represents the Gainsborough Hill division, said that although there was a lot of public opposition to the proposal, he felt that the firm had followed all the necessary planning procedures.

He said: “I completely hear what everybody’s saying and what the speakers have said around why we may not wish for this to happen and why this may not be ideal.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see any material planning reasons for it. The fear is if we refused it on some of the conversations that we were having we would lose it at appeal.

“That would incur costs and we would lose any conditions that we might wish to have in place in this process. Our hands are tied in my opinion.”

Coun Martin Hill (Conservative), who represents the Folkingham Rural division, said there were no legitimate reasons to refuse the application.

He said: “The issue the committee has got is that if we were to refuse the application, we have to do so on reasonable grounds.

“Having looked at the area, the size of the north Kelsey Road, which can take a lorry and a car side by side and the fact there is an industrial estate on the other side of Caistor, personally I’m satisfied with what the applicant has done to try and mitigate things.”