'Rape of the countryside'

There are serious implications for the Chichester area, where all the county's remaining gravel is located, and for some areas north of the downs, which have sand reserves.

Proposals by the outgoing Government indicate a big increase in both the regional allocation for sand and gravel production, and the one for West Sussex.

A new regional figure of 11.2m tonnes a year is proposed, and a West Sussex total of 1.03m tonnes a year, for the period 2010-26, which represents an increase of 13 per cent on the current annual county figure of 0.91m.

Strong objections over both the new regional and county figures were authorised by Cllr Derek Whittington, just before he stepped down from the post of county cabinet member for strategic planning and transport.

The county council, as mineral planning authority, is required to make provision for the extraction of this amount of material, if the figures are imposed by Whitehall.

All the stops are now set to be pulled out in a bid to get the new Government to take a different line, amid serious concerns for the environment.

Meanwhile, there will be continuing speculation that areas containing gravel and sand will come under growing pressure.

And fears will be awakened that a bitterly controversial gravel extraction plan thrown out by county councillors last year could be resurrected.

There were claims this would have wrecked countryside and made historic Chichester the gravel production 'capital' of West Sussex for more than a decade.

County council officers recommended approval of an application by Tarmac to extract more than two million tonnes of sand and gravel from 500 acres of agricultural land north of the city, over a period of up to 15 years.

But the proposals ran into all-out opposition from objectors at a meeting of the county planning committee, and the committee voted to refuse planning permission for the project.

One county councillor said it would be a 'rape of the countryside,' and another compared it to the 'ravaging and pillaging' of the Vikings.

Mike Hall, the county councillor for Chichester north, who played a leading part in opposing the Tarmac plan, said that material from the Chichester gravel beds, between Slindon and Westbourne, had been continuously extracted and processed during the past 60 years.

"The possible remaining sites are either bordering the National Park or protecting water sources protection zones below," he added.

"I firmly support the cabinet member's recommendation to object to the proposals."

Cllr Hall said the current West Sussex apportionment of 0.91m tonnes a year was more than adequate for present and future plans.