THE Planning Inspectorate’s decision to overturn Devon County Council’s refusal to allow a quarry to be built near Ottery St Mary has been branded “ridiculous.”

Councillors rejected plans to create a 100-acre quarry at Straitgate Farm after it received 250 objections from the public in December 2021.

They ignored the council’s officers recommendation to approve the scheme, in which more than a million tonnes of sand and gravel would be taken from Straitgate in work lasting more than a decade.

At the time, the council said that the possible harm to heritage assets, damages to water supplies, and a loss of mature trees and hedges contributed to their decision to throw out the bid.

Carbon emissions produced by the 23-mile trip from Straitgate to Hillhead Quarry, where materials would be processed, were also cited as an obstacle.

However, after an inquiry late last year, the Planning Inspectorate has overturned the council’s decision.

The applicant, Aggregate Industries, can now begin extracting sand and gravel from Straitgate.

Cllr Vicky Johns (Ottery St Mary, Independent) is exasperated at having the county council’s decision overruled.

“It’s just absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “The entrance to Ottery is the main branch road from Ottery to Exeter. People need to go to work, people need ambulances, fire engines need to get out of Ottery onto the A30 to deal with incidents.

"And they’re going to put a quarry there.

“It’s going to cause absolute carnage, and they just haven’t listened; I don’t understand why they haven’t listened.”

Cllr Johns added that the effect on Ottery St Mary will be “atrocious”, and lamented that Devon’s plan to go carbon neutral by 2050 has been set back “massively”.

“To be honest, I’m absolutely gobsmacked that it’s been approved,” she stated.

Devon County Cllr Jerry Brook (Conservative, Chudleigh and Teign Valley) supported the move at the initial meeting in 2021, and backs the decision the development management committee came to on the day.

“I stand by the committee decision to be quite frank,” he said. “The fact that some supported and some may not have is irrelevant. More felt the balance of evidence on the day was not in favour. That’s how we work.”

Rob Kershaw