People power defeats super-quarry plan from world’s largest cement firm

Dedicated local activists are celebrating after successfully battling against plans for a mega-quarry by the world’s largest cement producer.

The Straitgate Action Group said the “ludicrous” plan by Holcim, formerly known as Aggregate Industries,  to excavate around a million tonnes of sand and gravel from farmland in Ottery St Mary was now “dead, kaput, finito” after decades of opposition.
“Despite relentless attempts – over many, many years – the company has finally had to admit defeat,” the action group said in a statement.
“Its plans could not work.”
The group added that Holcim, a Swiss multinational firm that is the world’s largest cement producer, had submitted an application this year to quarry 3.9 million tonnes of sand and gravel as an extension to its Hillhead site near Uffculme, meaning walking away from Straitgate would not mean “the company or the county will run short of aggregate”.
A spokesperson for Holcim said it had agreed to sell Straitgate Farm and that it “no longer seeks to quarry the land”.
Following a change in business strategy and direction, which has included a review of the planned site, the company has decided not to proceed with quarrying at Straitgate.
“We have informed Devon County Council of this development and that we intend to allow the planning permission to lapse as a result,” the spokesperson said.
“We recognise that the local community will welcome the clarity and certainty this will bring.”
Councillor Jess Bailey (Independent, Ottery St Mary)  cheered victory in the decades-long campaign in a social media post.
“Total respect to Straitgate Action Group for being utterly brilliant in their longstanding opposition to the proposed quarry,” she said.
“They have been unrelenting in their challenge of Aggregate Industries every single step of the way for nearly 25 years.”
Straitgate Action Group said records of the farm’s existence dated back to “at least the sixteenth century”, adding that its “ancient hedgerows and oak trees, habitat for dormice and bats” had been saved.
The group said the farm, which has been in the same family for nearly 100 years, could continue to be farmed “in peace” and that nearby Cadhay, a Grade I-listed house with Grade II-listed gardens “has the assurance that the aquifer at Straitgate will remain undisturbed”.
The first planning application to quarry Straitgate Farm was submitted in 1967 by English China Clays, a predecessor of Aggregate Industries.
But a public inquiry led to the scheme being refused.
Decades later, the area was included in Devon County Council’s minerals plan that identified areas where excavations could occur.
A 2015 application was submitted but later withdrawn by Aggregate Industries, and an amended one in 2017 was finally put before Devon’s planning committee in 2021.
Councillors refused it in spite of officers recommending approval, and Aggregate appealed the decision, securing permission from the Planning Inspectorate in January 2023.
But that came with 53 conditions, and left it with just over one million tonnes of saleable aggregate compared to the 1.5 million it had envisaged.
Cllr Bailey added that she had continued to frustrate the application even after the Planning Inspectorate approved it.
“Four days after the appeal decision, I submitted a formal application for a tree preservation order (TPO) for the two key, mature oak trees art the entrance to the [proposed] site,” she said.
“I knew that these would be destroyed by making the entrance and I thought that was completely wrong.”
She added that since the TPOs had been in place, it had been “deafeningly quiet” from Aggregate Industries.