CAMPAIGNERS fighting controversial plans for a new quarry are celebrating after councillors turned today their backs on official advice and voted to oppose the scheme.

Laurence Cawley

CAMPAIGNERS fighting controversial plans for a new quarry are celebrating after councillors turned today their backs on official advice and voted to oppose the scheme.

Planning experts at Babergh District Council had urged its members to support proposals for a new quarry and industrial workings at Chilton, near Sudbury, despite receiving almost 90 letters of objection from residents, community leaders and police.

The latest plans included a new roundabout to get onto the site in a bid to allay fears about the effects of the quarry on the treacherous A134 and A1071 nearby.

Applicants Brett Aggregates, which has also appealed against the original rejection of the scheme by Suffolk County Council last year, claimed in the report to today's Babergh committee meeting that the roundabout would answer any safety concerns while additional traffic from the site would only represent a 0.2% increase in lorry movements.

The report recognised the “significant demand” for aggregates in the Sudbury area over the coming months and raised no objections after noting there were no adverse comments from the Highway Agency.

But members of the committee this morning unanimously voted down against their officers' advice.

Members were told the proposed roundabout access to the quarry still presented significant concerns and did not address many of the reasons for Babergh objecting to the previous proposals last February.

Welcoming the decision, Colin Poole, chairman of Newton Parish Council said: "The elected members were clearly still resolutely determined to ensure that the safety of the people of south Suffolk and the peace of the countryside is not sacrificed for the sake of a quarry which is superfluous to requirements, offers poor material and is in the wrong place.

“I now call on Brett to abandon their plans for this quarry. They are wasting everyone's time as well as their money. Every elected member given the chance to vote on this matter, whether it be parish, district or county councillor, our MP, the Police, have all unanimously said no to this proposal. There are in excess of 280 objections lodged with the county council. Brett should do what we are all asking them to do and walk away.”

The matter will now go before the county council's development control committee on October 23 where it will be decided.