Creating a Natural Asset

Creating a Natural Asset
Planning and partnership key to restoration success at Tarmac’s Sutton and
Lound gravel pits
A
s part of a long and successful
partnership with the Nottinghamshire
Wildlife Trust (NWT), Tarmac are
delivering a major quarry restoration and
aftercare management plan for their 600ha
Sutton and Lound gravel pits, a large part of
which was certified as a Site of Special
Scientific Interest (SSSI) by English Nature in
2002.
Tarmac’s Bellmoor and Lound estate is
situated in the valley of the river Idle, north
of Retford, Nottinghamshire, and has been
worked for high-quality alluvial sands and
gravels since the mid-1940s. The estate has
been in Tarmac’s ownership since 1981.
20
Historically, Bellmoor Quarry, to the south
of the estate, produced 350,000 tonnes of
sand and gravel per annum. Extraction
ceased in 2005 and the site is now home to
the Central regional office of Tarmac. Lound
Quarry, to the north of Bellmoor, typically
produced a larger output of approximately
500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel per
annum. Since opening in 1940, it is estimated
that 30 million tonnes of sand and gravel have
been extracted and sold from the quarries to
serve local construction markets. The site is
still operational, but work is winding down
and Tarmac will cease extraction from Lound,
and thus the Bellmoor/Lound estate, later
www.Agg-Net.com
this year. Tarmac’s restoration and aftercare
plans are on schedule and the company
anticipates that the site will be fully restored
by the end of 2012.
Back to nature
Originally required to be restored to
agricultural land, the average depth of sand
and gravel extracted at the Bellmoor and
Lound quarries was 2–3m. In order to fill the
resulting voids to original levels and allow
agricultural restoration, pulverized fuel ash
(PFA) from nearby Cottam power station
was pumped as slurry and allowed to settle
prior to soil replacement. In the early 1990s
July 2011
Biodiversity & Sustainability
The Idle Valley Rural Learning Centre
Powergen ceased PFA infilling, which meant
that full agricultural restoration could not
take place and large areas were left as
water-filled voids. Over time this land
regenerated naturally and became a haven
for wildlife, and in April 2002 some 316ha of
Bellmoor and Lound quarries were
designated as SSSI, largely due to their
assemblages of breeding, wintering and
passage birds.
Working with local partners to manage the
restoration in line with local and
environmental needs has been key to its
success, as Neil Beards, estates manager
with Tarmac, explained: ‘We worked very
closely with NWT to prepare detailed
restoration proposals for the land and water
within the SSSI. We then put these to Natural
England and Nottinghamshire County
Council, and in 2004 we began a five-year
programme of works.
‘We frequently engage with NWT and all of
our restoration works within the SSSI are
approved and monitored by them at regular
meetings and with on-site supervisions to
agree when and how the final landforms are
achieved.
‘We recognized that it was important to
engage with local partners and bodies early
on in the restoration planning process, to
ensure that, with careful management, both
during and after extraction, the impact of
quarrying on the surrounding area is
minimized, and that once decommissioned,
the quarry site becomes a habitat for
July 2011
interesting and diverse wildlife and an asset
to the local community.’
As part of the aftercare of the
Lound/Bellmoor estate, Tarmac have agreed
to donate all of their land within the SSSI to
NWT to ensure that the area is protected and
nurtured for the future.
The Idle Valley Rural
Learning Centre
The idea of a joint NWT/North
Nottinghamshire College education centre and
visitor facility was developed following a
presentation to the Bassetlaw Local Strategic
A fully restored section of the site
www.Agg-Net.com
21
Biodiversity & Sustainability
sparrow, yellowhammer and even the
nightingale, a bird which had been extinct in
Nottinghamshire until two or three years ago.
Looking to the future
In 2004 and 2008 the quarry came first in its category in the BTO British Business Bird Challenge
Partnership, when the local tertiary college
identified that its desire to support a rural
population with training close to the centre of
population at Retford could form the basis of
a project adjacent to the extensive SSSI. Very
quickly the synergies of the college using the
site during academic term time and the
community and visitors using the site at
weekends and in the holidays became
apparent. The building was funded via the
European Regional Development Fund and the
Alliance SSP, and Tarmac transferred the land
to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust in 2007.
The education centre combines an
outstanding teaching environment with
leading renewable technologies and offers a
unique model of a training centre operating
adjacent to, and essentially within, a SSSI for
the study of land-management and other
skills. The centre is also used by large
numbers of community groups from local
schools and youth groups, through mental
health support networks, including the
Boundary Centre run by Nottinghamshire
County Council, Bassetlaw District Council
and MIND, who visit regularly, to more mature
people with a ‘healthy walks’ programme. This
is in addition to more specialist natural
history groups who are keen to see what the
site has to offer.
Successes
NWT has now completed the second year of
its Heritage Lottery Funded (HLF) project and
the partnership with Tarmac has seen a new
viewing screen installed, around 4km of
fencing erected to increase the grazing of the
site, and approximately 4ha of scrub cleared
to improve the openness of the site for
wetland birds.
NWT has also achieved a further 2ha of
scrub clearance, brought nine islands under
management, created a 2.5km path around
the Idle Valley Rural Learning Centre using
recycled aggregate from Tarmac, brought 8ha
22
‘We will continue to work in partnership
with NWT until the aftercare period is over
and
both
Natural
England
and
Nottinghamshire County Council confirm
that the restoration and aftercare of the
SSSI are complete to their satisfaction,’ said
Tarmac’s Neil Beards. ‘At this point, we look
forward to donating the remaining SSSI land
to NWT.’
Charles Langtree, head of estate
management at Nottinghamshire Wildlife
Trust, is pleased with the restoration’s
progress: ‘Tarmac’s Sutton and Lound gravel
pits site is enabling us to achieve many of our
ambitions for the north of Nottinghamshire.
It is a very special site worthy of the SSSI
status and the success it has in bird
competitions,’ he said.
‘It is also important to consider how the
other priorities, such as recreation and
commercial interests of land owners, have
been resolved in the peripheral parts of the
complex. I am certainly keen to see the site
develop and to continue to work with Tarmac
to maximize the potential of this wonderful
ex-gravel pit complex,’ he concluded.
Beyond the current limits of the SSSI,
modifications to the existing approved
restoration plan for the final extraction area
at Lound Quarry will see some 20ha of void
being restored to a wetland scrape landform.
Historically, prior to intensive farming
and river management, this area adjacent to
the river Idle would have been seasonally
flooded with marshy shallow ponds and
hollows. This would have provided a diverse
habitat for amphibians, insects and groundnesting and wading birds, which in modern
times has been lost.
Tarmac’s proposed modifications will
hopefully recreate a natural pre-agricultural
landscape.
It is anticipated that this site will become
a magnet for migrating and nesting birds,
which will further improve what is a regionally
QM
important area for wildlife.
of grassland under management and
extended grazing to a further 30ha of land.
Finally, 200m of hedgerow have been laid, a
new viewing platform installed and a 150m
willow arch created.
In addition, a new project to propagate
NWT’s own reeds seems to be proving
successful, with reed seeds collected in
2009 appearing to germinate successfully. In
conjunction with this, the site’s polytunnel has
been decked out with a boardwalk and four
bays. Construction is now under way for
outside bays to help with the propagation
process. This work has proved very successful
with groups with mental health issues, in
particular the Worksop Boundary Community
Support Services.
In 2004 and 2008 the quarry came first in
its category in the British Trust for Ornithology
–British Business Bird Challenge. Historically,
more than 170 different bird species have
been sighted at Lound, counted with the
generous help of numerous volunteers from
the Lound Bird Club. Wetland species
populate the area and coastal birds that are
generally rare inland also visit the site.
Shelduck, little ringed plover, Extraction will cease later this year and the quarry will be fully
ringed plover and oystercatcher restored by the end of 2012
are among the many species
observed on site.
While all birds are protected
during the breeding season,
Schedule One birds are under
constant protection throughout
the year and some of these
can be seen at Lound, including
kingfisher, barn owl, blacknecked grebe (a rare bird
nationally) and garganey duck.
Farmland birds, whose
numbers
have
reduced
nationally over the years, have
also been spotted at Lound.
These include the grey
partridge, skylark, linnet, tree
www.Agg-Net.com
July 2011