Warning to council chiefs as changes are approved to county gravel extraction plans (From Daily Echo)

It doesn't matter what the subject these days there is always a protest group of some kind waiting to object, it doesn't matter that we need these minerals and its ok to transport them from miles away as long as it doesn't affect me is the attitude, we need houses so we need sand and gravel to build them sand and gravel etc is very heavy and expensive to transport so the further you transport it the dearer the houses that are built with it will be. Its a good thing that Tesco don't sell sand and gravel otherwise there would be a right old protest going on.

I say dig the sites but then landscape the holes and let nature reclaim them when they can no longer be excavated.

Well said both the above. Every residents action group claming to be concerned about the environment is a sham. And yes I have gravel pits near me too and they aren't even close to the problem that groups like RAGE and CAMEL have been claiming. Most people don;t even have any idea they are there.

The Wickham Man wrote:
Well said both the above. Every residents action group claming to be concerned about the environment is a sham. And yes I have gravel pits near me too and they aren't even close to the problem that groups like RAGE and CAMEL have been claiming. Most people don;t even have any idea they are there.

a lot of people don't even know that most lakes alongside motorways are gravel pits that were dug for the gravel to build the motorways, like Broadlands lakes or lakeside in Eastleigh.

I think what people are really worried about are precedents : once you allow one gravel pit, others will follow.

We like our countryside, but fear that poulation expansion, building, and industrialisation will leave us nothing but brick and concrete to look at. Brings that Joni Mitchell song to mind : They paved paradise, Put up a parking lot.

If you think about it, for things to stay exactly as they are now, no more children should be born. There will undoubtedly come a day when couples will have to get on a pregnancy waiting list, as birth numbers have to match deaths.

BillyTheKid wrote:
I think what people are really worried about are precedents : once you allow one gravel pit, others will follow.

We like our countryside, but fear that poulation expansion, building, and industrialisation will leave us nothing but brick and concrete to look at. Brings that Joni Mitchell song to mind : They paved paradise, Put up a parking lot.

If you think about it, for things to stay exactly as they are now, no more children should be born. There will undoubtedly come a day when couples will have to get on a pregnancy waiting list, as birth numbers have to match deaths.

It's getting that way in china already, one child per couple.

BillyTheKid wrote:
I think what people are really worried about are precedents : once you allow one gravel pit, others will follow.

We like our countryside, but fear that poulation expansion, building, and industrialisation will leave us nothing but brick and concrete to look at. Brings that Joni Mitchell song to mind : They paved paradise, Put up a parking lot.

If you think about it, for things to stay exactly as they are now, no more children should be born. There will undoubtedly come a day when couples will have to get on a pregnancy waiting list, as birth numbers have to match deaths.

I agree Billy, but the problem is that scaremongering Nimby groups who oppose everything and then obfuscate and exaggerate the facts don't help anybody. No scheme is ever modifed to reduce its impact when there is simply an army of pensioners shouting "no" to everything no matter what. Gravel extraction can be progressively landscaped and bermed so that it is unobtrusive and virtually invisible yet for instance Camel Solent inferred to its terrified elderly supporters that the Chilling proposal would create a new sea cove! In fact Chilling already has had a large gravel pit and the landscaping of it today makes the old pit area one of the most attractive and diverse areas in a fairly featureless and bland inland landscape,

Andy Locks Heath wrote:

BillyTheKid wrote:
I think what people are really worried about are precedents : once you allow one gravel pit, others will follow.

We like our countryside, but fear that poulation expansion, building, and industrialisation will leave us nothing but brick and concrete to look at. Brings that Joni Mitchell song to mind : They paved paradise, Put up a parking lot.

If you think about it, for things to stay exactly as they are now, no more children should be born. There will undoubtedly come a day when couples will have to get on a pregnancy waiting list, as birth numbers have to match deaths.

I agree Billy, but the problem is that scaremongering Nimby groups who oppose everything and then obfuscate and exaggerate the facts don't help anybody. No scheme is ever modifed to reduce its impact when there is simply an army of pensioners shouting "no" to everything no matter what. Gravel extraction can be progressively landscaped and bermed so that it is unobtrusive and virtually invisible yet for instance Camel Solent inferred to its terrified elderly supporters that the Chilling proposal would create a new sea cove! In fact Chilling already has had a large gravel pit and the landscaping of it today makes the old pit area one of the most attractive and diverse areas in a fairly featureless and bland inland landscape,

I am sorry but i have to dispute your reference to pensioners yes some might well be pensioners but in general the nimby's are the biggest group of protesters and they cover the whole age spectrum and they are closely followed by the tree huggers, but the one thing they all have in common is selfishness (im all right jack)

Ginger_cyclist wrote:

BillyTheKid wrote:
I think what people are really worried about are precedents : once you allow one gravel pit, others will follow.

We like our countryside, but fear that poulation expansion, building, and industrialisation will leave us nothing but brick and concrete to look at. Brings that Joni Mitchell song to mind : They paved paradise, Put up a parking lot.

If you think about it, for things to stay exactly as they are now, no more children should be born. There will undoubtedly come a day when couples will have to get on a pregnancy waiting list, as birth numbers have to match deaths.

It's getting that way in china already, one child per couple.

Yes, but that approach is riddled with problems. The 4-2-1 problem, for example. Or China's "most people want a son, and if they can only have one child, where are the women of the future going to come from?" problem, or the related "throwing unwanted baby girls in the gutter" problem.

As is often the case, what appears to be a solution only causes further problems. What's the solution? I don't know. But simply restricting what people can do normally fails spectacularly.

I'm sorry but you all seem to have completely the wrong end of this messy stick. Purple Haze which now seems to be approved is going to rip out about a mile long strip of beautiful woodland and is part of a woodland park (Moors Valley Park) which attracts thousands of visitors from various parts of the country year on year. The government harps on about getting out in the countryside and getting active but yet has just agreed to rip out the heart of This beautiful piece of Ringwood Forest which is heavily used by horse riders, walkers, naturist, cyclists and those who enjoy the woodland. This just happens to be opposite an existing site called Blue Haze. Ignorant people mentioned just let them do it and landscape it over....well this excavation work will be ongoing for about 25 years so I may not see it in my life time (and I'm not a pensioner). I'm not a NIMBY person either but we will loose woodlands possible damage to anciet saxon buriel sites and an area called the Ebblake Bog which is a unique habitat designated as a site of special interest. There are unknown issues with the under ground water routes and this is all within 500 metres of a large housing estate.
So I think its a little bit more than being a moaning pensioner or a NIMBY. This is nature being devastated on a grand scale.

mdsmith.verwood wrote:
I'm sorry but you all seem to have completely the wrong end of this messy stick. Purple Haze which now seems to be approved is going to rip out about a mile long strip of beautiful woodland and is part of a woodland park (Moors Valley Park) which attracts thousands of visitors from various parts of the country year on year. The government harps on about getting out in the countryside and getting active but yet has just agreed to rip out the heart of This beautiful piece of Ringwood Forest which is heavily used by horse riders, walkers, naturist, cyclists and those who enjoy the woodland. This just happens to be opposite an existing site called Blue Haze. Ignorant people mentioned just let them do it and landscape it over....well this excavation work will be ongoing for about 25 years so I may not see it in my life time (and I'm not a pensioner). I'm not a NIMBY person either but we will loose woodlands possible damage to anciet saxon buriel sites and an area called the Ebblake Bog which is a unique habitat designated as a site of special interest. There are unknown issues with the under ground water routes and this is all within 500 metres of a large housing estate.
So I think its a little bit more than being a moaning pensioner or a NIMBY. This is nature being devastated on a grand scale.

I understand what you're saying about the woodland and stuff, firstly the woodland, these days, for every tree that is cut down 3 to 4 of native origin have to be replanted, the Saxon burial sites would be avoided (they'd be forced to make sure of that) and the underground water routes probably wouldn't be affected much as due to the nature of gravel pits, the highest point of the lan around them is no more than 12ft above the water table which is why you often find pumps working in them to stop them flooding during the gravel extraction so because of the water table, the extraction will have little to no effect on the nearby bog or the housing estate, I personally think that after the extraction is finished, that a new lake surrounded by woodland would be very pretty and peaceful, brilliant for wildlife too, just hope that cemex are the ones to extract it as I have seen first hand how quickly they can extract gravel and then transform it into a beautiful part of the landscape, then again I'm slightly biased about that because they also turn their gravel pits into very prolific fishing lakes.

mdsmith.verwood wrote:
I'm sorry but you all seem to have completely the wrong end of this messy stick. Purple Haze which now seems to be approved is going to rip out about a mile long strip of beautiful woodland and is part of a woodland park (Moors Valley Park) which attracts thousands of visitors from various parts of the country year on year. The government harps on about getting out in the countryside and getting active but yet has just agreed to rip out the heart of This beautiful piece of Ringwood Forest which is heavily used by horse riders, walkers, naturist, cyclists and those who enjoy the woodland. This just happens to be opposite an existing site called Blue Haze. Ignorant people mentioned just let them do it and landscape it over....well this excavation work will be ongoing for about 25 years so I may not see it in my life time (and I'm not a pensioner). I'm not a NIMBY person either but we will loose woodlands possible damage to anciet saxon buriel sites and an area called the Ebblake Bog which is a unique habitat designated as a site of special interest. There are unknown issues with the under ground water routes and this is all within 500 metres of a large housing estate.
So I think its a little bit more than being a moaning pensioner or a NIMBY. This is nature being devastated on a grand scale.

Sorry but that is riddled with the kind of assumptions and misunderstandings that cause these enquiries to spiral out of control. Moors Valley forest is a growing timber crop of mainly Corsican Pine and all of it it will one day be harvested for timber, Arguing against any change in this area suggests you will be protesting when it is time for the trees to be felled, even though that is the reason they were planted in the first place, Areas like Moors valley are already riddled with former pits of one sort or another - where do you think the lakes came from?
All the talk about history and habitats hides the fact that Moors Valley like most of the countryside is still a man made environment and the trick is to manage it so that wildlife and flora can coexist happily. The answer is NOT to halt any and all development just as soon as you come along.
By the way gravel pits just like any mineral quarry are progressively extracted, there will never be a point when the entire area of "Purple Haze" or whatever its nickname is will all be worked at one time. The reasoning behind that should be obvious. Also sand and gravel should be sourced locally for environmental and transport reasons, which should earn the support of anyone claiming to be "green".

My main concern is the amount of congestion the extra lorries extracting gravel will cause. Hamble Lane is congested enough in the rush hours not to mention buses tankers and other lorries as well. Also at times there are boats on low loaders being transported. Hamble Lane isnt a very wide road and it may well be that more repairs will have to be carried out with the sheer volume of extra vehicles ie gravel lorries, it isnt a question of NIMBY on my part im merely pointing out how congested Hamble Lane already gets

Ginger_cyclist wrote:

mdsmith.verwood wrote:
I'm sorry but you all seem to have completely the wrong end of this messy stick. Purple Haze which now seems to be approved is going to rip out about a mile long strip of beautiful woodland and is part of a woodland park (Moors Valley Park) which attracts thousands of visitors from various parts of the country year on year. The government harps on about getting out in the countryside and getting active but yet has just agreed to rip out the heart of This beautiful piece of Ringwood Forest which is heavily used by horse riders, walkers, naturist, cyclists and those who enjoy the woodland. This just happens to be opposite an existing site called Blue Haze. Ignorant people mentioned just let them do it and landscape it over....well this excavation work will be ongoing for about 25 years so I may not see it in my life time (and I'm not a pensioner). I'm not a NIMBY person either but we will loose woodlands possible damage to anciet saxon buriel sites and an area called the Ebblake Bog which is a unique habitat designated as a site of special interest. There are unknown issues with the under ground water routes and this is all within 500 metres of a large housing estate.
So I think its a little bit more than being a moaning pensioner or a NIMBY. This is nature being devastated on a grand scale.

I understand what you're saying about the woodland and stuff, firstly the woodland, these days, for every tree that is cut down 3 to 4 of native origin have to be replanted, the Saxon burial sites would be avoided (they'd be forced to make sure of that) and the underground water routes probably wouldn't be affected much as due to the nature of gravel pits, the highest point of the lan around them is no more than 12ft above the water table which is why you often find pumps working in them to stop them flooding during the gravel extraction so because of the water table, the extraction will have little to no effect on the nearby bog or the housing estate, I personally think that after the extraction is finished, that a new lake surrounded by woodland would be very pretty and peaceful, brilliant for wildlife too, just hope that cemex are the ones to extract it as I have seen first hand how quickly they can extract gravel and then transform it into a beautiful part of the landscape, then again I'm slightly biased about that because they also turn their gravel pits into very prolific fishing lakes.

I understand your point about a nice lake but unfortunately when they have finished extraction it is earmarked as a potential landfill site so it will be a stinky lake

mdsmith.verwood wrote:

Ginger_cyclist wrote:

mdsmith.verwood wrote:
I'm sorry but you all seem to have completely the wrong end of this messy stick. Purple Haze which now seems to be approved is going to rip out about a mile long strip of beautiful woodland and is part of a woodland park (Moors Valley Park) which attracts thousands of visitors from various parts of the country year on year. The government harps on about getting out in the countryside and getting active but yet has just agreed to rip out the heart of This beautiful piece of Ringwood Forest which is heavily used by horse riders, walkers, naturist, cyclists and those who enjoy the woodland. This just happens to be opposite an existing site called Blue Haze. Ignorant people mentioned just let them do it and landscape it over....well this excavation work will be ongoing for about 25 years so I may not see it in my life time (and I'm not a pensioner). I'm not a NIMBY person either but we will loose woodlands possible damage to anciet saxon buriel sites and an area called the Ebblake Bog which is a unique habitat designated as a site of special interest. There are unknown issues with the under ground water routes and this is all within 500 metres of a large housing estate.
So I think its a little bit more than being a moaning pensioner or a NIMBY. This is nature being devastated on a grand scale.

I understand what you're saying about the woodland and stuff, firstly the woodland, these days, for every tree that is cut down 3 to 4 of native origin have to be replanted, the Saxon burial sites would be avoided (they'd be forced to make sure of that) and the underground water routes probably wouldn't be affected much as due to the nature of gravel pits, the highest point of the lan around them is no more than 12ft above the water table which is why you often find pumps working in them to stop them flooding during the gravel extraction so because of the water table, the extraction will have little to no effect on the nearby bog or the housing estate, I personally think that after the extraction is finished, that a new lake surrounded by woodland would be very pretty and peaceful, brilliant for wildlife too, just hope that cemex are the ones to extract it as I have seen first hand how quickly they can extract gravel and then transform it into a beautiful part of the landscape, then again I'm slightly biased about that because they also turn their gravel pits into very prolific fishing lakes.

I understand your point about a nice lake but unfortunately when they have finished extraction it is earmarked as a potential landfill site so it will be a stinky lake

They can't use it as a landfill as it would pollute the water table and the surrounding land and because it's the water table that's polluted, it would mean that many rivers in Hampshire would also be polluted including the Itchen and the Test, both of which are SSSI's and special sites of conservation, if they did use it as a landfill then they would be breaking EU law.

Ginger_cyclist - please tell Hampshire County Council that they can't use it as a landfill! Purple Haze is definitely earmarked as a future landfill site in their current Mineral and Waste plan and there is already a landfill site on the other side of the road (Blue Haze). Blue Haze was a sand and gravel quarry that started in 1955 - it is still being used as a landfill site today and it probably won't be transformed into a "beautiful part of the landscape" in my lifetime!

People in Verwood who object to Purple Haze are not NIMBYs - we already have several working sand and gravel quarrys in the area as well as Blue Haze landfill, so we do know what we are talking about. We are simply saying enough is enough - too much of Ringwood Forest has already been destroyed (with very little successful restoration) and now HCC want to start on Moors Valley Country Park.