Peak District National Park Authority stops illegal quarrying at beauty spot

PDNPA officers were conducting a random site inspection at the former Wagers Flat Quarry, on Longstone Edge, when they found evidence of mineral extraction taking place.

A Temporary Stop Notice (TSN) was served to the site owners and requires the immediate cessation of mineral extraction and exportation for a period of 28 days, with any contravention becoming an offence liable for prosecution. On a follow-up visit, officers confirmed the site owners were complying.

Tom Evans, strategic planning manager at the authority said: “With some 555 square miles of the Peak District under our care, random inspections of this nature are vital to ensure that legal notices of the highest level like prohibition of works are being adhered to.

“We’re pleased that on this occasion the site owners have recognised the seriousness of the temporary stop notice and appear to have ceased current works with immediate effect.”

He added: “Ultimately, protection of the landscape in the immediate area and across the national park is of the highest priority for us and the period afforded by the TSN will allow the authority to instigate any further enforcement action it deems expedient to ensure a complete cessation of extraction and exportation at the site.”

The site in question is the subject of a Prohibition Order imposed by PDNPA in 2013 and confirmed by the then Secretary of State in 2016 after a long-running legal dispute which began in 1999 and ultimately reached the European Court of Human Rights.

The area around Wagers Flat, which lies between Bakewell and Calver and includes Backdale Quarry, is home to rare shark bone fossils and other significant environmental features and PDNPA successfully argued that excessive quarrying of limestone was causing unlawful harm, despite planning permissions in place since 1952.

A landowner involved in that dispute, Bleaklow Industries in Chesterfield, is still registered as a going concern but PDNPA has not confirmed whether the same company is the subject of the Temporary Stop Notice.

The former operator of Backdale Quarry, which was at the centre of the legal case, MMC Minerals (Midlands) Ltd, went into liquidation in 2020.

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