Residents Against Gravel Extraction (RAGE) was founded in the early 1980s to alert the public to planning applications to quarry sand and gravel from the local area. It represents the mineral concerns of the Egham Residents’ Association, Stroude Residents’ Association and Thorpe Ward Residents’ Association.
There are no personal members – just the three residents’ associations above, to which RAGE reports. There is a Chairman (currently Professor Moreton Moore); a Secretary (Dr Jocelyn Boxall); and a Treasurer (Helen Garlick). We have a small amount of money, which is used for printing flyers and posters.
For various environmental reasons, I think that quarrying in this area is unlikely to happen. Over the past 40 years, there have been several applications from gravel companies to Surrey County Council to dig gravel from Runnymede Borough, which have all failed.
Our Member of Parliament, Dr Ben Spencer MP, is on our side!
The two applications of current concern are:
Milton Park Farm
Hanson applied to SCC for planning permission in 2009. This is so contentious that a decision has not been made in 15 years.
The planning application has reference numbers:
- For Surrey County Council - SCC Ref 2009/0015
- For Runnymede Borough Council - RU.09/0299
- RBC objected to this as of 03-10-2013
- Status Under consideration (as of 7th October 2024)
This is a huge site of 57 hectares (141 acres) bounded by:
- Manorcroft Road
- the M25 Motorway
- Stroude Road
- Whitehall Lane
It would stretch from Manorcroft Primary School and the Egham Bowls Club to beyond Great Fosters and the former Research Laboratories of Procter & Gamble (recently acquired by Royal Holloway University of London for student accommodation).
Whitehall Farm
Cemex applied to SCC for planning permission in 2021 – This too is contentious. SCC Ref 2021/0023.
Issues include:
Close proximity of these sites to a primary school and to many houses; air quality and human health; flooding; transport; noise.
Recent medical science is giving a clearer understanding of the dangerously damaging effects of fine air-borne particles upon lungs, especially in the young and old.
Climate change is causing rainfall to be more frequent and to be more intense: with the serious risk of flash flooding.
Access to the sites would be by very large noisy lorries on country lanes, not designed to take such heavy traffic.
These environmental factors are putting inescapable constraints upon gravel companies.
There are currently nation-wide petitions to prevent gravel quarrying companies from operating sites closer than 1 kilometre from schools and residences. Although raised in the House of Commons, this will however take time to become policy and law.
Author:Moreton Moore
Updated:29 October 2024
Email: rage@eghamresidentsassociation.co.uk
