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Join us to Stop Hanson Expansion at Westdown Quarry

We are the Stop Hanson Expansion at Westdown Quarry (SHEWQ) campaign group. Local residents and business owners, nature conservationists, young and old, we’re all banding together to stop Hanson’s plans for a new “super quarry” in the Mendips, Somerset.

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About the campaign

Westdown Quarry, near Nunney, has been disused for nearly 40 years and is right next door to the ancient Asham Wood in the Mendips – a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.

In May 2021, Hanson submitted planning applications to Somerset County Council to ‘re-open’, but in reality significantly expand, the quarry onto over 100 acres of farmland. The total application area for extraction is 168 acres The plans also include dumping oolite waste from this land into the old Asham quarry, the 79-acre Asham Void, burying 33 years of natural regeneration.

A new super quarry at Westdown would be a massive industrial project. There are already four quarries nearby, including Whatley and Torr super quarries. Somerset County Council has approved two quarry planning applications and there are two more applications in the pipeline over the next two years. The cumulative effects on local people and the environment would be huge.

Join us to Stop Hanson Expansion at Westdown Quarry

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Together we can fight

  • A probable 33% increase in quarry HGV traffic
  • Dust, noise and likely damage from vibrations to homes from quarrying and traffic
  • Material impact on habitat of Asham Wood, home to protected animals such as otters, dormice, bats and owls
  • Potential risks to the water table posed by the pumping out of water from the quarry.
  • Light pollution
  • The extraction of an estimated 160 million tonnes of carbon-rich rock, contrary to the national climate emergency, Environment Act and Somerset County Council’s own Climate Emergency Plan.

So far, there have been over 500 objections to the plans including from Somerset Ecology Services (Somerset County Council’s own ecology team), Natural England and Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Over 2000 people have signed a petition but we need your help to reach over 5000.

But there’s more to do
Hanson’s application is set to go to Somerset County Council’s Regulation Committee later this year.

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