A PROPOSAL by the ancestral owner of a 17th century historic house to create a sand and gravel quarry beside Yorkshire’s longest river and opposite a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust haven could create risks to human health from noise, air quality and vibration, a study has concluded.

North Yorkshire County Council planners have told Newby Gravels Ltd that while its plan to extract up to 30,000 tonnes of materials a year from a nine-hectare site beside the River Ure at Great Givendale, south-east of Ripon, would have “significant impacts”, a series of measures would be needed to mitigate them.

Documents submitted to the authority ahead of an anticipated planning application state the firm estimates that quarrying work and restoration of the land would take place over a decade.

They state Newby Gravels, whose director Richard Compton is the owner of the nearby grade I listed country house Newby Hall, would remove the minerals from the site, which is currently agricultural land in open countryside, by 20-tonne trucks making 12 trips a day, joining the public road at Skelton Lane.

The papers state transportation of the sand and gravel from the quarry, where at least four people would be employed, would be suspended during major events taking place at the hall.

They add the firm is currently exploring the feasibility of the establishing rental holiday lodges at the site following the quarry.

They state: “Such a leisure activity would complement the existing activities of the hall and wider Ripon area including the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Yorkshire Dales National Park.

“Restoration would therefore be to a combination of wetland areas with surrounding amenity woodland and grasslands with up to 20 short-term let lodges for holiday use.”

Newby Gravels also highlighted that the proposed quarry site is not in an area designated at a national or international level for its ecological or landscape importance.

However, in its response to a request from the firm for a screening opinion, the council stated the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust’s Ripon City Wetlands, which has wildlife ranging from bitterns and avocets to kingfishers and otters, is opposite the proposed site.

A senior council planning officer wrote: “There could potentially be some impact on the adjacent nature reserve in regards to noise/disturbance. Therefore assessments investigating this would be required with any application, which would offer mitigation.”

The officer added the impact on the landscape would be permanent, however this could be mitigated with a high quality mitigation scheme and biodiversity net gain.

She stated: “The proposal site could have risks to human health from noise, air quality and vibration, during the operational and restoration phases

of the development.

“There is potential for a significant impact due to the duration, frequency of HGV movements and nature of the operations.

“This has potential to be significant specifically in relation to noise, air quality

and traffic, which would require to be mitigated by noise monitoring, a dust

management plan, travel plan, visibility splays and should be accompanied by

the appropriate technical assessments and management plans to ensure that

these issues are addressed appropriately.

Council planners concluded as the site lies within an area with a high probability of flooding there was also potential for a significant impact “due to the location, duration, scale and nature of the operations and this would require mitigation…”