The county council has given the green light to postpone the restoration of the Roke Manor quarry, near Romsey, until 2028.

The planning application was submitted to delay the restoration of a quarry near Romsey that should have been completed in January 2023.

Roke Manor Quarry, 1.3 kilometres west of Romsey, east of Shootash and north of the A27 Salisbury Road, will be restored by January 2028 after Hampshire County Council granted permission to delay the restoration.

The council first granted permission for Roke Manor Quarry in June 2009, with the quarry opening in 2015, to extract 750,000 tonnes of sand and gravel, landfill with inert construction, demolition, excavation waste, and restoration to agriculture at Roke Manor.

Roke Quarry had already caused controversy with two extensions previously being granted despite resident's fears that it would '"destroy the countryside".

The first application to extend the Roke Manor Quarry, called the Stanbridge Ranvilles Extension, was set to extract a further 600,000 tonnes of sand and gravel and was submitted early in 2021 to Hampshire County Council. The extension was met with concern by local residents.

The main causes for concerns were over the biodiversity of the site and the impact from noise and pollution on nearby properties. Fears were also raised over the hours of operations which would be 7am until 6pm on Monday until Friday and 8am until 12.30pm on Saturday. 

Councillors had differing views on whether to permit the plan, but the committee agreed as they said there was a need for sand and gravel to meet growing housing demand, and it was approved in 2022.

Additional planning permissions were also granted but under the ruling that the quarry area “shall be fully restored to agriculture within nine years of the date of extraction commencing.”

The council said that as work started on January 31, 2013, Roke Manor Quarry should have been restored by January 31, 2024.

An additional condition specifies that complete site restoration, including the plant site, haul road, and bunds, must be finished within 11 years from the start of the bell-mouth access construction on the A27.

Raymond Brown Quarry Products Ltd, headquartered in Hampshire and involved in mineral extraction, recycling, and land restoration, has now submitted a planning application to Hampshire County Council to change one of its conditions.

The change would involve pushing back the restoration of Roke Manor Quarry an additional 4 years, blaming Covid restrictions, additional restrictions on extracting at the site, market challenges, and seasonal “constraints” were amongst the reasons why the restoration was not completed by the deadline, the council was told.

Since the company was “unable” to meet the restoration on time, it asked to extend it to 15 years rather than 11, which was previously agreed.

With the regulatory committee’s approval, the wording of condition 2, which determined the timeline, will be changed so that Roke Manor Quarry must now be restored by January 31, 2028.

A planning statement issued by Raymond Brown Quarry Products Ltd, admitted the delay “could be considered to have a minor adverse effect on visual impact when considering limited views of the site” from nearby homes.

Tree and shrub planting is forecasted to be undertaken during the winter of 2026/27, with the final restoration completed by spring 2027.

Groundworks will be undertaken in the summer of 2027, and final planting and landscaping will be completed in the planting season over winter 2027/28.

All development elements will enter the “aftercare” period by January 2028.