Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which has been fighting plans for a sand and gravel quarry at Barton-in-Fabis for over a decade, has urged people to have their say on the latest proposal ahead of the deadline on Monday 3rd February. 

The charity has been working alongside local residents and the SAVE campaign to avert the loss of and damage to vital designated wildlife areas within the footprint of the proposed quarry site and to prevent impact on birds and visitors that rely upon the much-loved Attenborough Nature Reserve.  

Speaking about its concerns and the need for more people to have their say, the Trust’s Head of Communications Erin McDaid said: “This has been a long fight and each time we think we’ve safeguarded the future of these vital wildlife areas it keeps coming back - but we’re not giving in or giving up hope."

The proposed quarry would be on land directly over the River Trent from the charity’s best known site – Attenborough Nature Reserve - and the Trust has longstanding concerns about the potential impact on wildlife habitat over the river, disturbance and disruption to wetland birds that rely on the nature reserve and over the impact of people’s quiet enjoyment of the reserve.  

Whilst the Attenborough Nature Reserve is a former quarry, the world has moved on significantly in the hundred years since quarrying started on the Attenborough side of the river. The global climate and nature crisis means that valuable wildlife habitat must be protected, restored and expanded, not damaged and destroyed – and the value of access to natural greenspace to people’s health and wellbeing is now widely understood.   

Erin added: The land quarried at Attenborough didn’t include any designated wildlife areas but the proposal over the river would directly or indirectly impact of many Local Wildlife Sites and two Sites of Special Scientific Interest – Attenborough & Holme Pit.  We don’t object to quarrying in principle but believe that this proposal would have a negative impact on wildlife which we can’t afford during a nature crisis. In the words of our friends at the SAVE campaign. ‘Whether you’ve objected before, or this would be your first time, please consider objecting.”