Monday 19 June 2017

‘We welcome birdwatchers to our quarry…’

... says an Aggregate Industries' quarry manager in Staffordshire. In fact, so long as they stop wandering off the footpaths, "we ask birdwatchers to share their sightings and any logs of the species found":
Aggregate Industries operate both quarries and have claimed that the sand and gravel produced from the quarries create perfect habitats for wildlife, especially birds.
At Straitgate Farm, on the other hand, AI would rather not draw your attention to the birds that would be attracted to the water and wet grasslands left in perpetuity from any sand and gravel quarrying - given that it’s directly - just 195m - beneath an international flight path.


Moreover, rather than any signs welcoming birdwatchers and encouraging them to "share their sightings", there would instead be an altogether less-friendly Wildlife Habitat Management Plan which could lead to the "culling of wildlife".

Of course, it's another one of those issues that DCC will have to add to the planning balance;

weighing up the positives of the scheme...  against the ever expanding list of negatives: