Quarry tax moves welcomed

10 March 1999

The national charity, the Council for National Parks (CNP) has welcomed Government moves to introduce a tax on quarrying.

The tax was not announced in the budget but the Treasury Minister, Patricia Hewitt MP, has said the results of Government research on the environmental damage caused by quarrying point firmly in the direction of a tax.

The Government is asking the minerals companies if they can come up with a much stronger set of voluntary measures which would help address the environmental impacts and their costs- estimated to be at least £250 million a year.  Otherwise ministers say a tax will be introduced.

"Quarrying is literally eating away at some of our most beautiful landscapes", said CNP President, Sir Chris Bonington. "The industry has to meet the Government's tests or it knows it will be taxed.  It has already published a set of voluntary measures but these don't go far enough. The main problems are the level of quarrying - with no incentives for more prudent use - and the heavy burden on environmentally sensitive places, like National Parks3 . At the end of the day it is likely that only a tax can address those issues."

CNP believes a tax is necessary to address two things:

 the historic legacy of large-sale quarrying in beautiful National Park landscapes which many millions of people come to enjoy; and
 the level of supply of crushed rock and sand and gravel for general construction.

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