Community near Dartmoor challenges Quarry plans over dust and health risks

Residents have raised fears about what they believe is dust escaping from a nearby Devon quarry that could be a serious health risk.

The Save Our Trees action group has collated what it views as evidence that dust from the Preston Quarry in Kingsteignton is being spread around the local area.

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Campaigners are fearful that the dust’s quartz content could mean it is potentially carcinogenic, a claim the group believes it has substantiated with official health guidance.

This has sparked its battle against potential plans for another quarry that would involve the removal of a large, mature woodland.

Sibelco did not respond to a request for comment.

Holland Risley, one of the lead campaigners, said the group had filmed a lorry “kicking up visible dust onto the public highway next to Kingsteignton school, with the dust rising one metre alongside the safe crossing area”.

“Google imagery shows there has been dust on the road over multiple years, and all clay contains quartz up to 30 per cent, and when it dries and gets disturbed, it produces respirable crystalline silica, a Group 1 carcinogen, that can be linked to COPD and lung cancer,” he said.

Mr Risley said that, given dust was escaping the site, it was “not credible” that quarrying closer to the town at the potential new site would be a sensible solution.

“A Devon County Council dust assessment states the smallest particles can cause many health issues and can travel over one kilometre, yet approved monitoring is only on larger visible ones that affect, and I quote the council’s wording, ‘public perception’.”

He added that he had not been able to find evidence of dust monitoring by the council near the school or the settlement edge.

“The council is not a bystander, but has the power to say that a location is fundamentally unsuitable,” he said.

“At the very least, it should review existing permissions that have not been worked for over 100 years, such as at the rugby club and fishing lakes in the town, and extinguish them.”

ABOVE: An image of roads near Preston Quarry, which campaigners say show dust deposits on the road (Image courtesy: Save Our Trees/Google Maps)

A spokesperson for Devon County Council said it had not previously received complaints about the dust before Save Our Trees addressed the council.

“But we are currently working with Sibelco, the environmental health officer at Teignbridge District Council, as well as the public health team, to assess the complaint,” the spokesperson said.

Advice from the Health & Safety Executive states that fine dust from materials such as rock, sand and clay, known as respirable crystalline silica (RCS), can cause health issues, but that these are “almost entirely preventable when exposure to dust is adequately controlled”.

It lists silicosis, a lung disease caused by inhaling RCS, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer as potential health risks.

In terms of the potential new quarry, there has not yet been a formal application.

“A scoping opinion was requested by Sibelco under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations,” the Devon County Council spokesperson added.

“This is a request for advice about the content of any Environmental Statement that would need to accompany any future planning application.

“This is on the public record on our planning register.”

In August, Teignbridge District Council placed a tree preservation order on the trees that could be the site of another quarry on land off Broadway Road.

Sibelco objected to this order, stating it has planning permission to extract “nationally and internationally important ball clays from beneath the land, which is known as Zitherixon Quarry”, and that it had been subject to prior mineral workings granted by Devon County Council.

“The planning permission permits the loss of trees over the land to facilitate further quarry workings,” the letter states.

“The planning permission also advocated for the company to plant trees in areas where future mineral extraction will not take place for long periods of time.”

ABOVE: An aerial shot of roads near Preston Quarry, which campaigners say show dust deposits on the road (Image courtesy: Save Our Trees/Google Maps)

The letter, written by David Walton, director for sustainability Northern Europe at Sibelco, adds that the council has “provided no evidence” to justify the claim that the trees contribute to the visual amenity of the area.

“Nor has the council provided any arboricultural assessment of the trees on the mineral extraction site,” the letter added.

“To do so, they would need permission from Sibelco, as the landowner, to enter onto its private property.”

However, in the scoping opinion from Devon County Council in 2023, it states that while there are several permissions that include parts of Zitherixon, most also covering other sites, what seems to be the main permission was then considered by DCC “to have lapsed”.

No further documents appear to have been uploaded to the case file on the Devon County Council website.