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12 November 2004 - The Land NOT Sand action group launched its campaign to block the opening up of a sandpit alongside Pine Woods Road at a packed meeting in Longworth Manor Barn. Members of the group, which is chaired by Alan Boyce, presented their view of the threat that the sandpit poses to the wellbeing of the Longworth and Hinton Waldrist communities, and outlined their plans to combat the planning application, which is now expected to be submitted by Hanson Aggregates in the spring of 2005.
The campaign, whose key theme is "defending the character of our countryside," has three priorities. The top priority is to put the strongest possible case to Oxfordshire County Council to deny the planning application. The second priority is to persuade the OCC to attach such conditions to the grant of planning permission as to make the operation of the sandpit economically unattractive. And failing these, the third priority is to minimize the impact on the community of the sandpit if it comes into operation.
The meeting was attended by around 100 local people from Longworth and Hinton. While the mood was generally strongly supportive of the campaign, there were words of caution from some. One view was that the campaign needed to do more to build up local support among all the residents of Longworth and Hinton, and that care should be taken to avoid exaggerating the threat because this might alienate those who have still to make up their minds.
Written by: Martin Taylor
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