Colchester Quarry

We are promoting a site in Heckfordbridge for inclusion within Essex County Council’s Minerals Plan. Candidate Site A62 covers the entirety of the proposed site edged red on the plan. Candidate Site A61 forms the northern half of Site A62. However, our initial outline proposals are for a single extraction site in this location as shown by Site A62.

No. We are at the very earliest stage in the process. The list of candidate sites put out for consultation by Essex County Council was pulled together following a ‘call for sites’ from mineral developers and landowners in the county. The site proposals and consultation responses are currently being evaluated by council officers as part of the development of its Minerals Local Plan (2025 – 2040).

The next step is for Essex County Council to identify a list of preferred sites for inclusion within their draft Minerals Local Plan. These sites will be assessed further and subject to another round of public consultation. It is only once the final Minerals Local Plan is ratified and adopted by full council that any minerals sites will be formally ‘allocated’. They will then still be subject to a full planning application (including Environmental Impact Assessments and public consultations) prior to any development taking place.

You can read more about the Minerals Local Plan process here: Replacement Essex Minerals Local Plan review 2025 to 2040 | Essex County Council

No, the site would not become a landfill. Our proposals are very clear that no materials would be imported into the site as part of its restoration. If the site were to get planning consent, it would be tightly controlled by conditions within the planning permission and associated legal agreements with Essex County Council. Tarmac also has an established reputation for responsible restoration of former quarrying sites.

We take the preservation and enhancement of local wildlife very seriously and have won awards for our work. We conducted initial ecological surveys to be able to put forward our proposals to Essex County Council and are continuing to monitor the ecology of the site. Should this site get allocated in the Minerals Plan and we decide to submit a planning application, it would be subject to a full Environmental Impact Assessment. This would identify any impacts and propose appropriate mitigation measures. Our restoration scheme seeks to significantly enhance the biodiversity of the site, creating new and improved habitats for existing wildlife as well as creating new habitats to attract species whose existing habitats are under pressure.

Our aim would be to restore a significant proportion of the site back to high-quality agricultural land. We have extensive experience of successfully delivering quality arable land as part of our land restoration work across the UK.

These plans are at a very early stage. However, within all our active quarrying sites, we implement a range of proactive measures to control dust, ensuring we adhere to national and local air quality standards at all times. As part of the conditions of any planning consent, we must develop a Dust Management and Monitoring Plan (DMMP) in collaboration with the local authority responsible for Environmental Health. This plan includes monitoring at multiple locations around a quarry to continuously assess dust levels against predefined thresholds agreed with the local authority. We employ a number of measures to reduce the impact of dust being generated by our activities and these may include the use of water sprays to dampen dust on internal haul roads and extraction areas, as well as washing the wheels of lorries and reducing vehicle speeds.

When dust covers houses and cars it can certainly cause inconvenience to residents. It may also be irritating if swallowed or if it comes into contact with skin or eyes. However, visible dust particles are generally not small enough to pose any significant health risks as the particles cannot be inhaled into the lungs and are too heavy to remain in the air for very long. The particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs and cause harm are generally so fine they are invisible to the eye. Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) is one example of such particulates. The level of RCS produced by quarrying activity is very low and is typically only an issue on sites dealing with hard rock such as sandstones where they are crushed and subject to grinding/cutting to produce dimension decorative stone. For sand and gravel deposits of the type found in Essex there are no such processing activities that would give rise to any amount of RCS dust. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE): “Silicosis is a disease that has only been seen in workers from industries where there is a significant exposure to silica dust… No cases of silicosis have been documented among members of the general public in Great Britain, indicating that environmental exposures to silica dust are not sufficiently high to cause this occupational disease.”

These proposals are at a very early stage. However, as with other Tarmac sites, we would adhere to noise limits set by Essex County Council and Colchester Environmental Health Office, regularly monitoring nearby residential areas to ensure compliance. Work carried out on the proposals has helped shape the working scheme and allowed us to determine how far we need to stand off the properties on the boundary of the site to ensure that we can comply with the noise limits that would typically be imposed.

The existing quarry operates in strict accordance with the noise limits imposed by Essex County Council and Colchester Environmental Health officers. The nearest residential properties are monitored regularly to ensure compliance with those limits. If these proposals progressed further, any future site would follow the same process to ensure that operations continued to fall below imposed noise limits.

Our proposals are based on conveying the as raised sand and gravel back to the existing quarry to be processed for sale. The HGVs would therefore continue to use the existing highway network to take the aggregates to market. For the vast majority of loads this will be to use Warren Lane to gain access to the Western Bypass and onto the A12. Apart from any local deliveries, HGVs do not turn south on to Warren Lane onto Maldon Road and therefore there will be no new HGV traffic generated that would pass through Heckfordbridge and Birch. As part of our existing operations, we closely monitor the movement of HGVs and liaise with the hauliers under our control to ensure they only use the appropriate routes. It is considered likely that if Candidate Site A62 does proceed then it would be post the closure of the Enovert Landfill Site at Colchester Quarry and therefore there would be a significant reduction in the number of HGV movements generated by the Quarry complex.

The long history of quarrying in Stanway means that necessary infrastructure is already in place, including improvements to the road network, to mitigate against impact and support existing quarrying operations. We strive to minimise the impact of our activities on the community and will continue to work closely with our neighbours to ensure this during any future developments.

To minimise lorry movements, we are proposing to transport the mineral back to the existing processing plant at Stanway Quarry using a conveyor. This means no major new vehicle access routes would need to be created. The only vehicle access that would be needed is an access to accommodate the occasional delivery of the plant and machinery used for the operation and the daily movement of the very small number of staff who would be working on the site each day.

If our proposals were to be allocated in the Minerals Local Plan, we decided to proceed and we were then granted planning consent, it would take approximately 18 years to extract the mineral and restore the site.