Major plans for the expansion of a Northwich quarrying operation look poised for approval.

Cheshire West and Chester’s planning committee meets tomorrow where it is recommended to rubber-stamp an application to extract an extra 5.58m tonnes of sand from Crown Farm Quarry, resulting in 252 HGV movements a day.

Tarmac Trading Ltd has submitted the application for the 'lateral and deepening' extension of an already-approved excavation area, along with plans for two fixed and one moveable electrical substation.

Situated six miles to the south-west of Northwich, Crown Farm Quarry is located north of the A556 (Chester Road) and Oakmere village, with Stoneyford Lane to the east and Station Road to the west.

Permission had already been granted in 2020 for extraction up until 2042, with restoration pencilled in for 12 months after that. If approved, the plans state the additional work would be carried out within the original time frame.

A new high-voltage electricity supply to the bagging plant, washing plant and dredger, using green energy, is proposed and two fixed electrical substations near the bagging plant and wash plant would be installed.

The applicant said that the total number of HGVs generated by the proposed development - assuming an extraction rate of 650,000 tonnes a year - would not exceed an average of 252 vehicles per day (126 in and 126 out), when measured over a working day month - which it said falls below the cap already laid out in the original planning permission.

Recommending approval, a report to the committee, said: "The proposed development is an extension to an existing operating sand quarry and would provide a supply of sand to meet an ongoing national and local need. It would assist providing a steady and adequate supply of sand within the authority within an allocated site."

The report added: "Other benefits include continued onsite employment, the enhanced restoration of the site to nature conservation and farmland including a biodiversity net gain, as well as the replacement of diesel driven generators with an electricity supply addressing climate change."

The quarry currently covers approximately 333 acres of land. Over 50 acres is known as the Crown Farm Nature Reserve, which is land that has already been quarried and restored. The nature reserve is managed by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust, with funding from Tarmac.