Sabotage Raid on Yorkshire Quarry

To celebrate the Spring there was a sabotage raid on Horton Quarry in Ribblesdale, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Horton Quarry, owned by Hanson, is one of three huge quarries eating into this part of the National Park. It is on the fringes of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC). The quarry mainly supplies roadstone. Most of the stone is moved within the quarry by two Terex TR45 trucks. These vehicles can transport up to 45 tons of stone per load, the wheels stand higher than a person, and the engine is about the size of a small car. Two TR45's had their oil filters removed and replaced with cylinders of grinding powder and left to destroy them selves. A few weeks later terex parts were seen on a wide loader heading away from the quarry. This action was taken as a stand against the destruction of our wild areas and the implications for wildlife of the climate chaos and construction/destruction of the new road building program. But mainly it was for the Rock Roses, rabbits and ravens we met on the way in. Take Action!

sue

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

20 years too late

16.06.2006 15:28

Erm, this is a bit late in the day, isn't it? That quarry was in full action when I first started walking in the 3 Peaks over 20 years ago, and the peace of Ribblesdale was regularly interrupted by blasting and by enormous great wagons piling along the narrow roads through Horton. It's been a serious blot on the landscape for yonks, and provides sod-all employment to the few locals that are left, so it would be no loss were it to go, but how come you've suddenly decided to put the boot into it now? Talk about bolting the stable door after the horse has scarpered...

G

Gerry
mail e-mail: gerry.gerbil@gmail.com

Perhaps they were not around 20 years ago

16.06.2006 16:39

You say you were and didn't like it but presumably were not as brave or comited as the people who did this action. Please try and be less negative towards people actually get off their arses and do something rather then just moan.

Gerry, you would earn more respect from me if your critism was becuase you disagreed with the action, even though I support it.

Well done to those who took the action

Ross Porter

The point of the action?

16.06.2006 17:54

I wasn't having a go at the action - if someone puts a minor dent in the quarry company's profits that's fine by me - but I do wonder what the point of it was. The damage to the countryside has been done, and pretty severe damage it is too, so even if the quarry were shut down the scar would remain for decades until weather and vegetation finally removed it. So I would like to know what the aim of the sabotage is. Is it to shut down the quarry, and if so why?

I'm sure locals in Horton wouldn't shed any tears over its closure as it's they who suffer the thundering of large wagons laden with roadstone through their small village, and they'd probably gain financially as tourism increased - if you compare Horton with similar Dales villages unblighted by quarries, it's remarkable how few B&Bs and pubs there are, even though it's on the Settle-Carlisle line. The quarry is a curse on the area and has been for yonks, no doubt about that.

G

Gerry
mail e-mail: gerry.gerbil@gmail.com

Earth First ? ELF ?

18.06.2006 14:55

Is this technically an Earth First action ? Environmental Liberation Front action ?

Rude Boy Awakening

Help please

17.10.2006 10:37

I'm researching the effects quarry transport on roads. I understand that there has been a number of articles on this subject in Yorkshire but I am unable to get hold of any...can anyone help (any location in the country)?

Please email,

Tamsin (

jha4tes@leeds.ac.uk)

Tamsin
mail e-mail: jha4tes@leeds.ac.uk