THE operators of a quarry that provides building materials to the Bradford District have asked for an extra decade to work, and then restore, the site.

Ten Yards Lane Quarry in Denholme is run by Birks Royd Stone, and is one of the major flagstone suppliers in the area.

The current planning permission for the site includes a condition that all work at the quarry must be completed by November 5 2022, and that the site must be fully restored by November 2023.

The company now hopes to extend that deadline, meaning the 5.4 hectare site could still be worked up until 2032 and would not need to be fully restored until 2033.

An application to Bradford Council to amend the original planning conditions says the extra time is needed to “enable the operators a realistic timetable to work the remaining reserves.”

Quarry near Keighley could operate for an extra 10 years

The company says the stone from the quarry is valuable to the local building trade, as it is often needed for new buildings to blend in with older buildings - many of which will have been build using similar stone.

According to the planning application, there is still another 20,000 tonnes of stone remaining in the quarry, which would take around four years to fully extract.

However, the application says: “There has been a slowdown in demand recently due to uncertainty within the marketplace due to Brexit followed by the Covid 19 pandemic.

But the application says the main reason for the 10 year extension is the amount of time it will take to restore the site once all the available stone is quarried.

One of the conditions of the planning permission for the site it that when all work is complete the land must be filled in, soil added to the site, the land re-seeded and tree and shrub planting on a section of the site. The latest application says the restoration work cannot begin until the excavation work is completed, and approximately 100,000 tonnes of waste will have to be brought onto the site to fill in the quarry.

Due to limits on traffic to the site - six HGV movements a day, it would take a year to transport 10,000 tonnes in, and a decade to completely fill the quarry.

The application says: “This calculation is subject to suitable materials being available in the locality, which would not be a constant guaranteed supply. Should the quarry not be restored by this volume of material, the final landform would comprise a bowl shape which would be prone to flooding and ponding of surface water. Such land would be unsuitable for agricultural use specified in the planning permission.”

People living near the quarry, which is between Denholme and Thornton, and East of Doe Park Reservoir, were sent letters about the proposed extension in September. The application says no responses to the plans were received.

A decision on the application is expected in the New Year.