How will it affect your life?

Make no mistake. If your home is anywhere near Bintree, North Elmham or Billingford and these proposals go ahead, they will have a serious negative effect on your life.

• 120-hectare combined gravel pit and waste landfill site will appear in the heart of rural Norfolk. This enormous scar on the countryside will blight all aspects of life in the area for the next 30–40 years. Concentrating increases in traffic and pollution in one place has a much more serious effect on that area than minor increases at a number of smaller sites.
• Traffic. Over the life of the proposed development there will be around 1.5 million lorry journeys to and from the sites on already dangerous narrow roads – about 200 lorries per day or 1 lorry every 3 minutes for 30 years going along your road. This is for aggregate extraction only; the processing plants and subsequent landfill will also generate large amounts of traffic.
  
• Pollution. The proposals would mean an industrial site covering over 120 hectares on some of the highest gound in Norfolk. Visual impact: the excavations, buildings and machinery would be visible for miles around. Dust: the elevation of the site means surrounding farmland and residential areas will be seriously affected. Noise: the sound of clanking machinery and diesel engines will radiate from the high ground across to Bintree, Billingford and North Elmham. Pests: waste landfill will also bring pest problems such as seagulls and rats.
• Destruction of a local amenity. Bintree Woods has been enjoyed by locals for generations. If the woods were lost, where would you exercise your dog, jog or cycle, or simply go for a walk? We would also lose all the wildlife – owls, badgers, deer, orchids.
  
• Climate change. Woodland is our most important resource to combat climate change. Bintree Woods removes 430 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere. The Forestry Commission preaches to the developing world about the importance of stopping deforestation. Shouldn’t they practise what they preach and look after Bintree Woods, instead of putting it forward for destruction?