SAVE LONGSTONE EDGE

SAVE LONGSTONE EDGE

Teasall Quarry go-ahead and its Implications for Longstone Edge

1 February 2009

Members of the Peak District National Park Authority have decided by 10 votes to eight to allow Glebe Mines to work Tearsall opencast fluorspar quarry, on Bonsall Moor, near Matlock, "due to exceptional circumstances secured by a legal agreement".

Glebe Mines, which already quarries fluorspar on Longstone Edge, made a number of concessions to win the permission - one of which was to waive its rights to quarry minerals at another environmentally sensitive site on Longstone Edge called Peak Pasture - but only for four years while extraction takes place at Tearsall Quarry. Peak Pasture is immediately above the village of Calver. It is not the first time that Glebe has used the Peak Pasture 1952 minerals licence as a bargining chip in exchange for other concessions.

However, the decision will now be referred to Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to decide whether she wishes to make a judgement on the planning decision.

In a submission to the planning hearing the Save Longstone Edge Group had said, "We believe that the undertaking on Peak Pasture is no more than a crude form of blackmail. As a minimum, the Authority should be seeking an undertaking that Peak Pasture will be made safe from quarrying for all time."

Read the full Peak District National Park Authority press release.

Read the SLEG submission to the PDNPA.