WELCOME

Welcome to our consultation website for the proposed quarry to the West of Roughetts Road.

This website is designed to provide key information to the local community and importantly, provide an opportunity for people to ask questions and communicate their views on the proposal.

As you may be aware, a larger site was promoted previously as part of the development of the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan. We have since reduced the size of the quarry and hope the following information is helpful.

Thank you to those who provided feedback by May 2024. We have responded to the most common questions here. In addition, our earlier factsheet is available here.

Our Proposal

The landowner is proposing to submit a planning application accompanied by an Environmental Statement for the development of a quarry to the West of Roughetts Road.

The Environment Statement will set out the findings of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which will be provided to Kent County Council as part of a planning application submission. The purpose of the EIA is to assess the impact of the proposal on the environment so the council can make an informed decision on the planning application.

As a first stage in this process we have submitted an application to Kent County Council for an EIA Scoping Opinion. The Scoping Opinion considers and then determines the issues to be included within the EIA.

The site was previously promoted for use as a quarry through the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan. Since that time the area of the quarry has been reduced. The reason for this is to reduce the time period required to extract the sand in response to comments from the community.

Location

The proposed site of the quarry is accessed from Roughetts Road, located north of the M20 and east of West Malling Golf Club.

Red line plan illustrating area to be included in planning application

The planning application boundary is indicated in red, although not all of this area would be quarried – the ‘extractive area’ would be well within this boundary.

Quarrying Process

We are in the early stages of designing the quarry which will be based on outcomes of technical reports, national and local planning policy and public consultation.

The proposed quarry would be excavated in phases over a number of years, likely 8 years for extraction and 6 years to simultaneously restore it back to agricultural land.

Quarrying is widely acknowledged and documented as making one of the biggest contributions to the creation of new habitats and nature recovery. You can read more here: 50 years of nature recovery through quarry restoration | Agg-Net.

Process and Timescales

The planning application will be developed in stages which are detailed below.

We are currently at Stage 3 in the process.

Updating the community

We are undertaking a public consultation ahead of submission of the Planning application. This feedback will then be considered by the project team and the proposals will be updated as necessary.

You can join our mailing list here to be emailed when further information is available.