Do we really need to dig up the countryside?

In February 2008 Norfolk County Council published its Mineral Extraction and Waste Development Framework for the county up to 2021. This identified 104 possible mineral extraction sites and 64 options for waste sites. Bintree Woods is being considered for mineral extraction and then as a waste site. Mineral sites produce the raw materials for the construction industry, mainly road and house building. To meet government targets in the East of England Plan, 78,700 houses new homes are planned for Norfolk between 2001 and 2021. There are also plans for a further 30,000 by 2031.

The argument goes…

1. Thousands more houses will be built, so…
2. More sand and gravel is needed so…
3. More of the countryside needs to be dug up…

…but the argument is WRONG.

WHY?

• The targets were based on recent trends and set during the economic boom. As we all know, the UK is now in recession and things may get worse. Mortgages are much more difficult to obtain and the housing market has all but collapsed. Don’t forget that although the government sets these targets they don’t actually build the houses – they depend on developers and housing associations. If developers can’t sell their houses, they won’t build them. It seems almost certain that the actual number of new houses built will be way under the government target. In November 2008 the House of Commons Committee on Climate Change called on the government to put back its targets so that more houses are built after 2016 – so the targets may change anyway.
• According to the Department of Communities and Local Government and to campaigning charity the Empty Homes Agency, in the UK there are currently 870,000 empty homes and enough vacant commercial property to create a further 420,000 new homes. This means that there are nearly 1.3 million potential homes available without any more of our valuable countryside being lost. The EHA figures also show that in Norfolk there are 10,581 empty homes. In 2006–7 a pathetic 103 properties were brought back into use by the local councils despite the existence of extended compulsory purchase powers introduced in 2004. Renovating or converting existing structures requires far less sand and gravel than building from scratch.
• There are better alternatives to digging sand and gravel out of the ground. The technology to recover aggregate from waste sites is well established. One source for recycled aggregate is disused concrete runways – there are plenty of these in Norfolk. We could recover valuable building materials, clean up the countryside, bring land back into agricultural use and save other sites from being quarried all at the same time.
• Modern eco-friendly construction is putting increasing emphasis on the use of timber. To build better houses, bring down timber imports and reduce sand and gravel extraction, the UK needs more woodland. The government agency responsible for developing our timber resources is the Forestry Commission, the same body which is proposing to destoy Bintree Woods.