Butts Quarry forced to shut down and close

A massive blow to the offroad industry in the UK today with Butts Quarry announcing they have been forced to shut down immediately and will close due to the Council’s last minute u-turn the night before the hearing.

Owners Barry and Jennifer Dring have released the below statement.

After two years of struggle, fight and preparation and after 15 months of litigation our appeal failed on the eve of the hearing. Throughout this period the Council have thrown every possible obstacle in our path to prevent the running of the activities at the quarry which were lawful and have gone on for decades.

The Council ignored the advice and input of the Police and the views of the vast bulk of the members of public including those living closest to the site. We have been shown great local support. Our appeal did not fail because of a valuation of our evidence or the reasonableness of the Council’s view but on a technical argument raised by the Council some 15 months after the appeal commenced and at the eleventh hour.

All we had ever wanted to do was run the track in accordance with the agreement that we reached with the Council and set out in writing with them after considerable discussion back in 2017. The Council themselves pulled the rug out from this agreement without making any criticism of it or our compliance with it. There was never any suggestion that we have done anything beyond our lawful rights on site and to impose a restriction on the activities in the manner that they did was unreasonable and high-handed and means it is impossible for us to provide the service that we have done so valuably and well received by the community for many years.

The fight is not over, however we are looking for your support yet again and if anyone wants to write to NEDDC with regard to Butts Quarry we would very much appreciate it.

Thank you Barry and Jennifer Dring.