Amanda Hack

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) for securing this debate. It goes without saying that quarries are integral to our infrastructure. My constituency is home to many quarries, and I have been able to visit Bardon Hill, Cloud Hill and Breedon on the Hill. Quarries can be difficult for residents, whether that is navigating the planning process or dealing with issues once they are opened. Lorry queuing dominates my casework at the moment. Since becoming the MP for North West Leicestershire, I have been contacted repeatedly by constituents about huge queues of lorries, sparking safety concerns. Earlier this month, a constituent shared that lorries have been parking on the island of a main road into Coalville, as well as on local pavements. The lack of a response from authorities is frustrating. There appears to be little redress when issues arise, leaving residents worried when new proposals are put forward. On particulates and air pollution, North West Leicestershire district council’s latest air quality report covers data from 2022. It specifically mentions high levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates of PM2.5 near to Bardon quarry. As a former health scrutiny member of Leicestershire county council, I know that this type of pollution is much higher near our quarries in Leicestershire. We must therefore consider the impact on local people when we go through the planning process. These pollutants can cause residents concern, for in addition to the associated dust and the smells generated from this type of heavy industry, nitrogen dioxide levels have been exceeded 216 times on the monitoring site. We need a new planning system, but we must also be able to deal with the impact of existing quarries. I would welcome the Minister’s response on how we deal with that going forward. I do, however, want to give people some faith that quarries can be good neighbours. Whitwick quarry has an understanding with local residents. When there are flood alerts, the quarry will stop pumping water into the local brook. The operators send out text alerts when there are going to be blasts and explosions, and they wash the wheels of the lorries down before they leave the site to minimise the dust dragged on to the street. We also have the opportunity brought by Bardon quarry leasing a private line that connects to the Ivanhoe line, which could potentially be reopened to passengers in the future. In the long term, we need to look at the balance between the resilience that hardcore material provides us and the impact that quarries have on local people. Being good neighbours should be the focus of managing planning going forward.