A FORMER quarry could be re-opened in a bid to extract 200,000 tonnes of “high demand” sandstone over the next 10 years.

A planning application to reopen the old quarry near Headley Golf Club, to the south of Thornton, has been submitted to Bradford Council.

It says the quarry could provide much needed materials important to conservation works to local heritage buildings, without the material having to be brought across the country.

Submitted by Eliot Smith, who has owned the site since 2018, the application estimates that around 20,000 tonnes could be extracted from the site each year for the next 10 years.

The site has not been a quarry for decades, and has most recently been used to store vehicles and scrap.

The planning application says the stone would be exported from the site via a maximum of 10 HGV trips a day.

The application says: “The site has historically been worked sporadically for mineral over many decades which pre-dated planning controls but there are still reserves of sandstone within the site, in the region of 200,000 tonnes to be extracted. The site covers an area of 1.34 Hectares in total.

“The operators are proposing to reopen the quarry for building, flagstone and roofing stone extraction on a low intensity basis over a period of approximately 10 years.

“Exports of mineral off site are proposed to be a maximum of 10 per day during periods of high demand but will typically be lower on average.

“The quarry has been designed to provide a small scale, sustainable and local source of building materials that will be capable of playing an important role in supporting the local vernacular building style in both heritage works and new builds.

“Recent years have seen a sustained demand for natural stone throughout the UK, driven by the growing number of historic buildings in need of repair, a growing awareness of the value of the stone-built heritage, and a renewed interest in using natural stone in new-build projects.

“The re-opening of the quarry will provide a chance to re-establish a supply of materials that will be inherently suitable for use in a variety of conservation works throughout the local area. The stone is of very high quality as a buff sandstone which is in high demand locally.”

A decision on the application is expected in late November.