FACTS

Hanson plc has purchased 69 acres of High Landscape Value agricultural land lying to the west of Pinewoods hamlet and extending North from the A420 almost to the Longworth - Hinton Waldrist village road. The purpose is to extract 1.25 million tonnes of soft sand. The mining is unlikely to be completed before 2015.

Hanson intend to submit a planning application to Oxfordshire County Council 'later this year or early in 2005'.

The character of our countryside around Longworth and Hinton Waldrist will never be the same again. Lorry traffic, noise, far-flung dust and air-pollution, decaying trees, blighted landscape, disfiguring artificial mounds, blocked footpaths, ruptured water-table, damage to local businesses and threats to health, is what we can expect. More threatening is the change of use. Once holes are dug in the landscape they have a habit of being enlarged: in which direction will the extraction spread? The mining will ruin the tranquillity and beauty of our landscape and threaten its wildlife. The peace of our community is now under threat.

Visit nearby Northmoor to see what commercial rape has done to the landscape and the misery opencast mining has brought to the local community. Hanson dug the pit holes. Songbirds do not sing in sandpits.

Would the Oxfordshire County Council let it happen?

Oxfordshire County Council is under pressure to meet Government targets for reserves of soft sand. Hanson's opportunist purchase and planned extraction provides a ready solution. Extraction from our local countryside could meet 60% of Oxfordshire's target for 10 years, take the County back up to the Government's target levels of reserves, and supply the resources for more urban development in rural Oxfordshire and beyond. Yet Longworth and Hinton Waldrist are not identified in Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan. There is a real risk that the OCC will approve the application!

Can we stop the planning application?

Yes! Hanson will have to jump over tough environmental and planning hurdles. Volunteers from Hinton Waldrist and Longworth have created an Action Team to achieve the Mission:- to deny Hanson plc the extraction of sand in the Parishes of Longworth and Hinton Waldrist.

We need to help each other achieve this Mission and so defend the character of our Countryside. Everyone has something to offer: perhaps his or her time or advice, specialist knowledge or research, letter writing or lobbying, meeting or canvassing, raising money or marching. The communal effort will be focused through the Land NOT Sand Action Team.

We are launching the Land NOT Sand! Campaign on Friday 12 November 2004 at 7.30pm in the Barn at Longworth Manor. Please come to hear the current situation and to decide what help you can give to safeguard our countryside by denying Hanson the extraction of soft sand. We need to help each other!

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