Update on the Roeshot Site

Currently Roeshot is being considered for mineral extraction, and inert backfill, by both Hampshire and Dorset County councils. The area at Roeshot is known to contain large amounts of gravel and, as it borders both counties, there is the perceived opportunity for the two authorities to both exploit the area, in what would be a giant gravel extraction site. It would be worked for probably 1-15 years, probably beginning around 2020.

Below is a brief summary of where the current proposals are for both county councils.

Hampshire

Roeshot is included still as a preferred site for Hampshire County Council to extract gravel from. The Walkford site was removed form the list, following consultation, and the large number of objections, but unfortunately Roeshot is still considered viable.

The current Minerals plan for Hampshire is on hold, pending the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) consultation on the overall South East Minerals policy. This will be determined following an Examination in Public, scheduled to be held in October 2009, and will decide how much gravel is needed by each South East county. Hampshire has asked for the amount of gravel it has been allocated to be reduced. If it is reduced then it makes the argument against the proposed inclusion of Roeshot stronger. So far however Hampshire Council have only said that if the lower figure of 1.62 million tonnes of gravel per annum (mtpa) was accepted, that they would be able to remove Hamble Airfield from the list of proposed sites. Roeshot would still be included as one of their preferred sites.

So at the moment we wait to see the outcome.

Dorset

The initial period of consultation on Dorset’s draft Minerals Site Allocations Document (MSAD) ended in Dec 2008. WRAGE made a representation outlining the reasons why we thought Roeshot was unsuitable. A copy of the outcomes from this review can be found here.

The Dorset Minerals and Waste Joint Advisory Committee is next likely to meet in September 2009 and a further stage of consultation is anticipated to take place in the autumn. At this point any objectors to extraction at Roeshot will need to write and make themselves known. We will update you on this website nearer the time as always, and WRAGE will of course be making its views known to Dorset during this phase.