PLANS to extract industrial sand from Somerford and establish a pipeline to transfer the minerals to the existing Bent Farm Quarry near Congleton are recommended for approval despite objections.

The application site near Somerford Farm is located to the west of Congleton and comprises three connected parcels of land.

The most northern parcel is a 35 hectare area of land lying to the south of A54 and west of A536.

The second is a 28 hectare site comprising the Bent Farm Quarry processing plant site.

Connecting the two areas is a narrow linear parcel of land which runs south to north west from the Bent Farm Quarry processing plant site crossing Wallhill Lane, the A534 and an area of agricultural land.

A report from Cheshire East’s planning officer to next week’s meeting of the strategic planning board, states: “The proposal is designed to act as a direct replacement of Bent Farm Quarry and Bent Farm Quarry West.

“The sand extracted at Somerford would be processed at the existing Bent Farm Quarry plant site and then loaded onto HGVs for transportation to customer’s processing site prior to dispatch to customers.”

According to the report, the total mineral resource on the site is estimated to be 3.046m tonnes and the deposit would be extracted at a rate of 336,636 tonnes per year.

“This would take a period of at least 10 years, with one year prior to extraction required for site establishment works and a further two years required to undertake the final restoration of the mineral extraction area, pipeline route and the Bent Farm plant site,” states the officer in the report.

“The applicant is seeking 15 years from commencement of the development until complete final restoration.”

Brereton Parish Council has objected to the application from Sibelco and raised a number of concerns, including the potential for air quality impacts on health .

The parish council also says it has not been demonstrated that there would be no damage to Bagmere SSSI (site of special scientific interest) and ramsar site.

Former MP Fiona Bruce, while still in office, raised numerous concerns including the loss of agricultural land and food production, fears over potential health impacts from air pollution to a large number of residents and school children, excess noise and dust.

About 50 local residents also objected to the proposal.

The application will be considered at the next meeting of the strategic planning board which takes place at 10am on Wednesday, November 20, at Crewe Municipal Buildings.