Eastern Extension

The site

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The Dorket Head Brick Factory and Quarry is located approximately 7.5km North-East of Nottingham.

The Brick Factory is located on the western side of Calverton Road whilst the Quarry is located on the eastern side. The Quarry is bounded by Woodborough Lane to the north and to the south is the dense woodland screening planted by Ibstock many years ago.

Please click here to view the site location plan for Dorket Head Brickworks.

Please click here to view an aerial photograph of Dorket Head Brickworks.

History of the site

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Clay extraction for brick making has been taking place on the Dorket Head site for over 175 years, with the forerunner to the present factory being established in the 1860’s by the Robinsons - a prominent Arnold family.

In 1897 the works was acquired by the Nottingham Patent Brick Company, remaining in their ownership until 1987. Marley purchased Nottingham Brick PLC (formerly Notts Patent Brick Company) in 1987 and Marley Brick were themselves purchased by Tarmac in 1993. Ibstock acquired the site from Tarmac in 1995 and Ibstock Brick Limited remains the owner to date.

The first planning permission was granted in 1961 with further permissions granted in 1971 and 1974 to extend the working area.

In 1983 planning permission was granted to restore the mineral workings by landfilling the quarry. At the same time, a new vehicle access into the site off Woodborough Lane was permitted.

Further planning permissions for clay extraction were granted in 1986 (for the eastern section of the site) and in 1998 for a southerly extension. Both of these permissions incorporated restoration of the site by landfill.

Under the provisions of the Environmental Act in 1995, the mineral permissions granted in 1970s and 1980s were “reviewed”, with a new set of planning conditions issued on 8 December 2003. These again continue to provide restoration by landfill.

Need for the Eastern Extension – Quarrying

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Demand for bricks is set to increase as the country comes out of recession and demand for new housing increases. This increase in demand is recognised in the East Midlands Plan, which has set a high housing target for the region that will increase the demand for bricks.

In order to maintain existing levels of production and furthermore meet the needs of increasing demand, extra reserves of clay need to be identified. Reserves of clay at the brick factory are only estimated to be enough for a further 13 years production, meaning that clay reserves at Dorket Head will be exhausted by 2023. The proposed Eastern Extension will provide a further nine years life for clay extraction, extending the supply of clay at Dorket Head until 2032 – helping to ensure the long-term viability of the Dorket Head Brick Factory.

The necessity for securing long term reserves of brick clay is recognised by Central Government who provide guidance for this in Minerals Policy Statement 1, Brick Clay annex 2; Brick Clay. This states; ‘the need to provide for a stock of permitted reserves to support levels of actual and proposed investment required for each new or existing manufacturing plant and the maintenance and improvement of existing plant and equipment. This will normally be sufficient to provide for 25 years...’ The Eastern Extension will provide a permitted stock of reserves for 22 years, which is less than the guidance note. Ibstock and WRG could have applied to achieve a 25 year permitted stock, however it was considered that extending the working areas above the 7.4 hectares and thus increase the reserves would potentially have a significant adverse impact on the environment through visual impact.

The Eastern Extension at Dorket Head will enable new reserves of clay to be accessed without the need to import clay from sites further afield.

Need for the Eastern Extension – Landfill

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Since 2000, the amount of household waste produced in Nottinghamshire has been fairly consistent. During 2007/8 around 439,000 tonnes of household waste was collected with 47% of this going to landfill.

Whilst increasing efforts are being made by local authorities to deal with waste more sustainably, including new recycling facilities and the use of energy recovery at facilities like WRG’s Eastcroft Incinerator in Nottingham, not all waste can be dealt with in this way.

Within Nottinghamshire, current landfill capacity is estimated to last a further four to five years and thus additional capacity needs to be identified now to provide a final disposal point after this time and to accord with Government policy.

The Government’s latest strategy on waste recognises that landfill will continue to play an important role in the management of waste and that there will continue to be an ongoing need for new landfill capacty as existing sites are filled.

By utilising the excavated area for landfill, WRG are able to restore the site to grassland, ensuring that the site is returned to a beneficial state, sympathetic with its surroundings, with the planting of trees, hedgerows, shrubs and woodland.

Quarrying at Dorket Head

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Quarrying at Dorket Head has been progressing from the western extent of the site nearest to Calverton Road, generally moving in an easterly direction.

Clay extraction from the quarry ‘face’ takes place in the summer months for only 6-8 weeks per year. Clay is transported to and stored in a stockpile within the quarry. As clay is needed, it is removed from the stockpile and transported to the brick factory throughout the year using a conveyor, which passes beneath Calverton Road.

Landfill and Restoration of the Site

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Site restoration is undertaken on a phased basis, following behind areas where clay extraction has taken place.

Worked out parts of the quarry are shaped to create engineered sealed ‘cells’ into which waste is tipped, compacted and covered with clay and soils. The site is then capped with a fully sealed plastic membrane over which soils are placed.

Restoration of the site is then completed with the planting of trees, shrubs, hedges and woodland. This process enables the reinstatement of public footpaths and provides suitable drainage for surface water.

Landfill and quarrying operations cannot be undertaken together within the Eastern Extension as there is insufficient room. As such, landfill will continue in the existing permitted areas, temporarily ceasing once the existing permitted areas are restored and until extraction is completed in the Eastern Extension.

Landfilling will commence within the Eastern Extension when quarrying has been completed.
This is envisaged to be around 2022. Landfill operations would then commence in the Eastern Extension and will then follow the remaining extraction operations until the site is entirely restored.

Traffic and Transport

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No additional traffic will be generated by the Eastern Extension. At Dorket Head there is no existing requirement or need to import clay as the factory is supplied from the adjacent quarry via a conveyor, which passes beneath Calverton Road.

As such, the impact of traffic associated with the clay winning activities have had no effect upon local traffic levels. This situation will remain if planning permission for the Eastern Extension is granted, as clay will continue to be moved to the factory via the existing conveyor system.

With regards to restoration of the site by landfill, the amount of vehicles visiting the site will remain unchanged to the existing landfilling operations, which have been ongoing for many years. During the week the site typically accepts 50 to 60 vehicles per day. During the period of temporary landfill cessation (see Landfill and Restoration) lorry movements will also significantly reduce, resuming to the existing levels once landfill commences in the Eastern Extension.

Protecting People and the Environment

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Ibstock and WRG understand the importance of ensuring that our operations do not have an adverse impact on local residents and are committed to being good neighbours with the local community.

We are currently in the process of considering the proposed Eastern Extension and the potential significance of any impact of the proposed clay extraction and restoration by landfill. The process of assessing this impact is called an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

We have now started some of these studies and we would like to share these with the local community. We have planned two public information days so that you can let us know what you think. Your feedback will then help us to prepare our planning application.

Further information on the measures that Ibstock and WRG will be taking to protect local people and the environment will be available at the public information days taking place in early February.

Baseline conditions have been established by a combination of documentary research of existing reports, records and plans etc and actual site survey work. To date, the following has been undertaken:

• Ecology – documentary research plus site surveys
• Archaeology – documentary/archive research plus site walkover survey
• Soils – site survey
• Landscape – documentary review (designations/policy etc) and site work
• Noise – measurement of background noise levels
• Air Quality – documentary research and review
• Water – data acquisition, documentary research and review of plans.

We have planned two public information days so that you can learn more about the work that we have been doing and let us know what you think. Your feedback will then help us to prepare our planning application.

Further information on the measures that Ibstock and WRG will be taking to protect local people and the environment will be available at the public information days.