AN action group committed to halting plans for a new quarry on North Yorkshire farmland is urging people to get behind the campaign and register objections by next week.

The Scruton Quarry Action Group has been campaigning to stop any mining of sand and gravel in a 500-acre area around Scruton, Kirkby Fleetham and Leeming Bar, between Northallerton and Bedale.

North Yorkshire County Council is running a consultation on the plans, which ends on Friday, January 15, for development of land that has been put forward by agent Hughes Craven on behalf of local landowners.

A spokeswoman for Scruton Quarry Action Group said: “Part of the area in question - about 100 acres have been discounted by the county council - but there is a new area that has come through as part of a preferred site.

“We have asked the council what the output of sand and gravel would be and it is widely different from what our own independent survey discovered – we were told two to three million tonnes by the council but our survey indicated there would only be around 250,000 tonnes from the site.”

The group said as well as their belief that there would not be a great enough yield from the quarry, it should also be discounted on safety grounds.

The spokeswoman added: “The proposed site is also within RAF Leeming’s safety zone. It is very low-lying land and marshy with a high water level table and if water were able to pool there it would attracts lots of birds – and birds and aircrafts just don’t go together.”

There are also concerns about traffic and how lorries would get in and out of the site.

Consultant Gary Hughes, from Hughes Craven, a consultancy specialising in minerals and geology, said the landowners were still currently working to find the most viable areas for a potential quarry.

“Part of the land we initially put forward was rejected so at the moment we are reviewing the remaining areas to see if they are viable or not.

“We will probably make a submission to the council as part of the ongoing consultation but it will be a reduced area.”

The consultation is for a joint waste and mineral strategy, covering up to 2030, and comments must be submitted by Friday, January 15. Information is available at http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/article/23999/Minerals-and-waste-joint-plan-consultation.