Progressive Restoration
Phased restoration would ensure that the land is not only restored but enhanced for people and wildlife.
Progressive Restoration
Phased restoration would ensure that the land is not only restored but enhanced for people and wildlife.
Quarry Restoration
More new nature reserves and wildlife habitats are created from restored quarries than any other industrial land use. We take our responsibilities for restoring the land very seriously and have built an enviable track record of operating and carefully restoring our quarries to leave a positive lasting legacy for people and wildlife.
We are proud to employ an experienced team who, over the years, have achieved more awards recognising the quality of our land restoration work than any other independent company in the quarrying industry. Securing more than 50 such awards for outstanding restoration, our quarry restoration schemes have been recognised not only by UK industry organisations but also by Europe-wide organisations concerned with environmental protection and nature conservation.
Rainham Quarry
Indeed, the existing Rainham Quarry Plant Site is located within the Green Belt and within the Thames Chase Community Forestry boundary and, as a consequence of the quarry restoration work undertaken by Brett, is identified as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation.
Above: Previous quarry restoration schemes delivered by Brett Aggregates where quarried land has been returned to agricultural use with improved hedgerow planting.
Progressive restoration at Rainham Lodge Farm
At Rainham Lodge Farm, restoration of the land would progressively follow behind the phased extraction of the mineral, bringing the land back to its original level.
This is done using ‘inert’ materials that cannot be reused in construction (such as excavated soils and clays from local developments). There are strict controls regarding what can and cannot be brought onto a site for restoration and every load is checked to ensure compliance. These inert materials are then profiled and covered with the subsoils and topsoils that were already on the site and were originally removed and stored in bunds around the site.
Progressive Restoration
Please use the forward and backward arrows on the image to move between the various stages of the planned restoration. Pause the animation by hovering your mouse over the image.
Final restoration scheme
Our current proposal is to restore the quarried area to a mixture of agriculture and nature conservation based afteruse comprising species rich grassland, open water with colonising reed and willow scrub, with some bare ground known to benefit invertebrates and a fenced area for grazing, sown with a neutral conservation grass seed mix.
The restoration scheme has a significantly greater emphasis on nature conservation and biodiversity enhancement in line with current and emerging policy. whilst retaining the additional public rights of way to be provided on final restoration.
Restoration of the site would be guided by the enhancement of biodiversity. Enhanced public access is recognised as being important and the existing footpath that crosses Rainham Lodge Farm, which would be diverted during some of the quarrying phases, would be reinstated along its original route. We also propose to create additional paths down the river bank to improve the footpath network, along with a proposed new river crossing if deemed appropriate by interested parties.
The final restoration contours will mimic the original, the most significant change will come about in the use of the site, especially that land lying to the west of the reinstated public footpath.
Land to the east of the reinstated footpath will be returned to an agricultural use with a new hedgerow planted along the eastern side of the reinstated footpath to replace the original hedgerow lost by the development. Land to the west will be restored to a mixture of nature conservation based after-uses the most significant being neutral grassland on the higher land to the east. Further to west, the land sloping down towards the Ingrebourne valley will be neutral grassland with the lowest lying land near the southwestern and part of the western boundary, restored as an area of wetland wildflower habitat.
Land to the west of the public footpath will have increased public access through the creation of two new permissive footpaths, one running along the western crest of the higher land to include a viewing point and interpretation panel and the other linking this new footpath with the reinstated footpath.
The final restoration plan would be agreed with the local authority and with the involvement of Essex Wildlife Trust, Thames Chase Trust and other interested groups as part of the planning process.
Scheme of aftercare
It is understood that aftercare of the whole application area, i.e. land comprising Rainham Quarry and Rainham Lodge Farm, will be undertaken in accordance with a 30-year Habitat Management Plan required by condition in the event that planning permission is granted. The aftercare scheme will detail the creation and enhancement of habitats for biodiversity net gain (BNG) including their management and monitoring over the 30-year period.
Quarries and nature
The quarrying industry is widely acknowledged as making one of the biggest contributions to the creation of new habitats and nature recovery, leading biodiversity net gain. This is well-documented, most recently in the Mineral Products Association document Quarries & Nature: A 50 Year Success Story which features numerous examples including quarries restored by Brett.