Welcome

Thank you for visiting our website for the proposed Hatfield Aerodrome Quarry. On these pages, we outline our revised proposal for the phased extraction of local sand and gravel at the site, including environmental considerations and restoration to create a country park.

In making a fresh proposal we took on board the comments received about our previous application, and we have worked to address the issues raised. In particular, made the following changes to ease concerns:

– Increased stand-off in the ‘Lower Mineral Horizon’ to 100m from the closest edge of the bromate plume
– No de-watering (pumping water out) from the ‘Lower Mineral Horizon’
– Moved the access road 5m east to allow for additional screening and sound mitigation
– Removed the proposed concrete batching plant from this planning application

This website forms part of our public consultation and your comments and questions are welcomed via our contact us page. The planning application (PL/0232/21) and associated documentation can be viewed here.

Essential local materials

Quarries provide essential materials for everything in our built environment. Sand and gravel will be needed for projects like Hatfield 2030+ to create new housing, rejuvenated community and leisure facilities, and improved transport infrastructure. The raw materials needed for building can only be sourced where they are naturally deposited beneath undeveloped land, such as the former Hatfield Aerodrome site.

Even by using all available recycled materials there will still be a requirement for newly-quarried local sand and gravel to meet construction demand in the Hatfield area. The potential for this site to play its part in meeting the local need for sand and gravel has long been recognised. The site has been identified in Hertfordshire Minerals Local Plan since 2007.

Our proposal in summary

We propose to develop the southern half of the former Hatfield Aerodrome site (outlined in red). The sand and gravel would be quarried and processed on site and then supplied to building projects in the surrounding towns and villages.

For the life of the quarry, our activities would be phased to allow large parts of the land to remain accessible to the public, either prior to the working of each phase or following the restoration. Each phase of the site would be worked and restored over an average of five years.

The site would be progressively restored in a way that would significantly enhance biodiversity and ultimately create an improved green open space for people to enjoy.

We have designed the proposal at Hatfield to align with national and local planning policy which focuses on mitigating and minimising any potential impacts and the progressive restoration of the site to a country park.

Brett has a long history of award-winning quarry restoration that enhances landscapes for people and wildlife alike. You can read more about this at www.brett.co.uk.