Background - On 17th May 2019 Shropshire Council approved planning permission for a 100 acre sand and gravel quarry and associated mineral processing plant at Shipley, on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border. 

The site is on top of a prominent hill within the West Midlands Green Belt, it is located upon a Principle Aquifer within a water Source Protection Zone. It has 35 acres of Ancient Woodland along the length of one boundary, the site is also know to contain significant amounts of archaeological material from as far back as the Mesolithic period and a number of European Protected Species. The access is directly onto the busy and dangerous A454 main road and is neighboured by a considerable number of heritage sites. In addition there are a number of vulnerable individuals living very close to the site who have significant health problems and will be directly affected by the dust and vehicle emissions.

The main complaint is that Shropshire Council have approved this application without knowing what harm it will cause to the environment and human health. They have repeatedly ignored the Environment Agency's comments and granted permission without requiring the applicant to undertake any hydrological monitoring prior to the decision or proposing any mitigation measures for impacts on the water environment.

The impact of changes to the hydrological setting could de-water the Ancient Woodland, destroy Great Created Newt breeding ponds, dry up springs and streams destroying ecosystems and impacting on heritage assets and impact on local boreholes affecting many homes and businesses. These are just some of the possible local impacts, who knows what the wider implications are? One thing is for sure, neither Shropshire Council nor the applicant do!

Water is essential for all life, not just human, it should be treated with the greatest of respect and preserved for future generations. It is an ever increasingly important and finite resource that is already under pressure from over abstraction and climate change, something we cannot quickly change. One thing we can do however, is ensure that we do not let any company destroy more of it for their profits.

Our Case: We strongly believe the decision made by Shropshire Council is unlawful. Permission has already been granted for a Judicial Review on the following grounds:

1.  They granted permission without knowing what impacts the development will have on the environment, which is a breech of the EIA Regulations.
2. For the reasons above are not compliant with their own policy to 'identify, protect, enhance, expand and connect Shropshire's environmental assets'.

Two grounds were not accepted but we believe they should have been and are appealing to the courts to get them added, these are:

1. Causing harm to the openness of the green belt.
2. Errors in the assessment of the air quality and vulnerable individuals (Equalities Act).

We are initially trying to raise £5,000 to help fund the Judicial Review and our legal experts at Richard Buxton Solicitors and Landmark Chambers. A significant amount of money has been raised in the local community to get to this point but we need your support to continue and to help overturn this decision and protect the environment.

The case has now been listed to be heard in the High Court on 17^th and 18^th December 2019.

Please support this case and send a message to all councils that they cannot put their finances and aggressive development policies ahead of the environment and planning policy, however much they manipulate the NPPF.

Thank you very much for supporting this campaign, we really appreciate your help.

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