EXPANDING: Entrance to Blackford Quarry on Quarry Lane in Blackford. Pic: Google Maps A QUARRY near the A303 in Somerset will be able to expand despite an outcry from local residents. Ham & Doulting Stone Company Ltd. applied for permission to extend Blackford Hill quarry, which lies south of the existing dual carriageway between Sparkford and Wincanton. The plans have been met with significant criticism from neighbouring residents, arguing that more than a decade of further “noisy excavation” would damage local businesses. But Somerset County Council has now ruled the expansion can proceed though it has placed restrictions on what work can be carried out at weekends.
Somerset quarry near A303 can expand despite residents outcry
The extension will remain operational until 2035
00:00, 30 JUN 2021
The proximity of the nearest property to the quarry site
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A quarry near the A303 in Somerset will be able to expand despite an outcry from local residents.
Ham & Doulting Stone Company Ltd. applied for permission to extend Blackford Hill quarry, which lies south of the existing dual carriageway between Sparkford and Wincanton.
St Martin s church in Birmingham
Credit: Nathan Stirk/Getty
SIR – On Saturday I visited my favourite pub for the first time since mid-December. The staff had carefully organised everything and the beer tasted like nectar.
The pub, which is not big, was busy and there was a lot of talking and laughter. As I sat there sipping my pint, I couldn’t help wondering why Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, and the Public Health England enforcers believe it’s safe for me to be in such an environment but that it would have been too risky for me to mingle the evening before with fewer than 30 people at a socially distanced choir practice with strict Covid protocols.
BBC News
Published
image captionThe five women spent much of the past year fundraising for the new play area
A small rural community has a new recreation area thanks to a group of five dedicated fundraisers.
The women, all residents of Somerset villages Charlton Mackrell and Charlton Adam, managed to raise £67,000 in lockdown.
Thanks to their efforts, the local play area, closed in 2018, has reopened with new equipment.
One of the women said it was absolutely amazing to see the area being used again.
Volunteers Nina Gronw-Lewis, Dee Powell, Dawn Richard, Jody Allen and Andrea de Berker, had planned to spend 2020 holding fundraising events after forming Project Charlton in 2019.