Powys Super-Quarry Threat

Powys County Council is in dispute with the Welsh Assembly Government over quarrying near Llanafan Fawr, on the south-eastern fringes of the Cambrian Mountains. The dispute is over two adjacent blocks of hill farmland totalling 1½ square miles, between Builth Wells and Beulah. The north-western block straddles the Cambrian Mountains National Park boundary as proposed in 1970 and is also partly within the Cambrian Mountains Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA). A small quarry already operates within this block at Cribarth.

WAG wants the land earmarked ("safeguarded" in WAG parlance) as a nationally valuable mineral deposit. Powys had originally allowed for quarrying there in its 2004 draft Unitary Development Plan (UDP), but decided to delete it from the final version. This prompted an objection from WAG, and the matter is now the subject of a public inquiry (23rd May - 23rd June 2006).

Clearly a major quarry would have a devastating impact on the landscape and environment of this attractive countryside, and the Cambrian Mountains Society supports the Powys County Council version of "safeguarding" (i.e. from quarrying and the inevitable huge expansion in road infrastructure and heavy traffic).

Part of the area is common land, prompting the strong concern of the Open Spaces Society. Click here for an OSS article ("Cambrian Catastrophe") and pictures.