TOWN councillors have opposed plans to extend a demolition recycling area at Whitewall Quarry in Norton.

Owners Clifford Watts Ltd has made a retrospective application for a 2.4 hectare extension at the quarry on the outskirts of the town.

Cllr John Howard said the quarry was becoming an increasingly heavy industrial site with heavy good vehicles travelling into the centre of Norton.

“We have 20 and 40 tonne lorries coming travelling through the centre of Norton at a rate of one every five minutes,” he said. “Permission for the quarry expires in 2023 and in my view it should not continue after that and an alternative should be found.”

Cllr David Lloyd Williams said: “The quarry was originally there to take out stone and it has a natural life which will expire, therefore they are trying to turn it into an industrial type of development which will produce all sorts of things. Everything has to come to an end and the owners should appreciate that.”

Cllr Di Keal said: “I am concerned that not only has this gone on so long and not been inspected, but it is also a retrospective application.”

A spokesman for Clifford Watts Ltd said: “The application is for a physical extension to only the recycling area within the quarry which reflects changes in the specifications and greater utilisation of recycled aggregates that enables them to substitute for primary aggregates and contribute to sustainability.

“The application merely seeks to regularise what is already taking place. There is no change in levels of activity of as a result of this application beyond what there is permission to do already.

“Retrospective applications are nothing unusual in planning and this is a purely an administrative suggestion on the part of the county council to bring something that has had no adverse impacts for 10 years.”