Summit on Dartmoor china clay threat

21 February 2001

A summit will be held in London on Monday 26 February to explore ways of avoiding the threat of china clay quarrying in the Dartmoor National Park.

Vicki Elcoate, Director of the Council for National Parks ⁽¹⁾, said: "we have organised this summit for leading experts in planning, National Parks and the historic environment to come up with solutions to the proposed expansion of china clay workings into the Dartmoor National Park. The Dartmoor National Park is internationally important and it is vital to protect its archaeology and landscape for future generations".

John Bainbridge, Chief Executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association ⁽²⁾, said: "The proposed china clay developments ⁽³⁾ represent the biggest threat ever to the Dartmoor National Park. If they go ahead, they will seriously harm the National Park and could send out dangerous signals to greedy developers who have ambitions to destroy for profit other National Parks and landscapes of outstanding quality. We hope that the summit will explore all possible ways of avoiding such damage to the National Park, however radical or innovative".

Notes to editors

1   The Council for National Parks is the national charity that works to protect and enhance the National Parks of England and Wales and areas that merit National Park status, and promote understanding and quiet enjoyment of them for the benefit of all.
2   The Dartmoor Preservation Association is a registered charity, existing to protect and preserve public access and interest in Dartmoor. It campaigns to save Dartmoor’s landscape; antiquities; flora and fauna; and cultural heritage.
3   A major area in the south of the Dartmoor National Park is threatened by old china clay permissions. Cadover Bridge lies just a few miles north of the growing city of Plymouth. It is a deservedly popular beauty spot, not only for hillwalkers who use it as a start point for rambles on the high moor, but also for non-walkers who picnic there or bathe in the River Plym. To the southwest of Cadover lies the valley of the Blackabrook, a tributary of the Plym and a lovely and wild Dartmoor valley. Thanks to the ancient mineral permissions, this area is earmarked for destruction by two china clay firms – Imerys and Watts Blake and Bearne - who want to open a huge quarry in the valley. On the road from Plymouth is Shaugh Moor, internationally famous for the richness of its Bronze Age antiquities – wonderful surface archaeology just a bus ride from a major city. Yet it seems that the clay industry regards this as just another place to dump its waste. Nearer to Plymouth, just outside the Dartmoor National Park is Crownhill Down. The clay companies want to tip waste here as well as construct an access road – yet Crownhill Down is probably the nearest stretch of valuable and ecologically rich lowland heath to Plymouth. 

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