A COMPANY hoping to create a ten-year quarry extracting 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel for their manufacturing business says it is dismayed after it emerged the county council is set to reject the plan.

A COMPANY hoping to create a ten-year quarry extracting 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel for their manufacturing business says it is dismayed after it emerged the county council is set to reject the plan.

Poundfield Products Limited has applied for permission from Suffolk County Council to extract and process sand and gravel from farmland at Grove Farm in Creeting St Peter and Creeting St Mary, near Needham Market.

The material would be used by the company's neighbouring pre-cast concrete manufacturing operation and the site would then be restored to agriculture, wet and dry woodland, wet meadow and reedbed.

More than 35 jobs could have been created, and the firm said it would closely monitor noise and dust.

Leslie Heasman, technical director with MJCA, which prepared the application for Poundfield Products, said they were unhappy with a county council report by officers recommending rejection.

She said there had been a “huge amount” of technical work carried out to make sure the proposals minimised environmental impact.

“Clearly there is a lot of local opposition, but with all the reasons for refusal, we are very confident that we could reverse them with more time. This is extremely disappointing, but we do not feel these issues are show-stoppers,” she added.

A total of 260 people objected to the proposals, while there were 89 letters of support sent to the council.

Many houses in the Creeting area have been displaying protest posters and residents feared their summers would be shattered by noise, lorries and dust.

The locality is also popular with ramblers walking within the Gipping Valley and campaigners fear that the river valley walk would be spoilt.

In a report to councillors, officers argue that the plan should be turned down, that the traffic situation in the village is a great concern, and that there are no plans to shield the site from the River Gipping path.

The say residents' quality of life could be harmed, the environment damaged, and there may be noise problems for local people living nearby.

Suffolk County Council's development control committee will meet to discuss the application on Thursday next week.