Letter: Shame on councillors for allowing gravel extraction in New Milton

So the planning application for Ashley Manor Farm mineral extraction has been passed (A&T 15th Nov) and a huge area of grade A agricultural land farmed since the Iron Age has been sacrificed for what can only be profit. Shame on the councillors who voted for it, their trivial excuses for doing so are deplorable – aren’t they elected by us to represent us?

New Milton is the largest town in the New Forest District Council area and it is doing very well thanks to the input of its excellent town council who have done so much to support, enhance and promote it. They voted unanimously to oppose the planning application. After all, who would want the gateway to their beautiful town blighted by an industrial site on a massive scale? Many hundreds of us sent in letters of objection, although by a quirk of the rules the original letters were discounted when a change to the application was put forward, meaning they must all be sent again. One wonders how many more there would have been had that been widely known.

Those lily livered councillors who feared the planning inspector should an appeal be lodged… why the cowardice? When this planning application was appealed last time, it failed as an agricultural buffer was thought necessary at the entrance to the town. What’s changed?

Over the past few years New Milton Sand & Ballast has expanded its site enormously, it now services and MOTs not just its own vehicles but other commercial HGVs too, it has opened a builders merchants and a garden landscaping supply outlet. This already means the traffic coming in and out of Caird Avenue is far greater than the 150 lorries a day expected from the new enterprise and, of course, what is always excluded are the lorries taking the extracted, processed minerals to the intended building sites throughout the county, amounting to many hundreds more. These all have to pass through New Milton, Lymington or Highcliffe to exit the area and travel a good distance to deliver their load. How long will it be before more fields are sacrificed to house the minerals extracted and even a further processing plant? The noise and dust are already a nuisance factor in the surrounding area.

Local elections are coming up in May. Perhaps some of our elected representatives should reflect on the consequences of being unwilling to support those who elect them.

Name and address supplied