NEW gravel quarries would be needed in Wallingford and Cholsey, campaigners fear, as county council bosses prepare to sign off their latest quota for digging minerals.

Representatives from lobby groups are expected to gather outside County Hall in Oxford today as council leaders meet to approve the latest draft of the county’s minerals and waste local plan.

The draft proposes to increase the amount of gravel extraction allowed.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England’s Oxfordshire branch is joining campaigners against the move, which it claims will to lead to new gravel pits being created.

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CPRE minerals consultant Arnold Grayson said proposed figures for extraction were 42 per cent higher than previous drafts, up from 0.715 million tonnes a year to 1.015 million tonnes a year.

As a result, he said, new pits would probably be needed “most likely at Culham and Cholsey”.

He added: “This is the third time the county council has tried to work out these figures.”

Councillors and campaigners in Wallingford and Cholsey said earlier this year they would fight any plans for a new gravel pit between the town and the village.

Cabinet member for environment David Nimmo Smith said: “Cholsey and Culham are vulnerable to gravel extraction whatever increase is agreed. There will be an opportunity for residents to comment before the latest proposals go before an examination- in-public.”

Independent county councillor Lynda Atkins, Cholsey county councillor Mark Gray and Wantage MP Ed Vaizey, who met last month to discuss the issue, said they would also fight gravel plans affecting farmland at Benson.

Grundon Waste Management, based in Benson, bought a 165-acre plot of land at New Barn Farm, west of Wallingford Road, for £2.1m, with a view to extracting gravel there.