THE prospect of a new gravel extraction pit being created near Wallingford is now more likely after county council leaders ratified Oxfordshire's minerals plan.

Last week members of the county council's cabinet backed the Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan, which increases the level of extraction.

This means proposed figures for extraction could rise from 715,000 tonnes a year to over one million, until 2031, and new gravel extraction sites are likely to be needed, with Cholsey near Wallingford and Culham near Abingdon likely options.

However, some have criticised the plan, saying the south of the county is taking on an unfair level of extraction.

County councillor Lynda Atkins said: "I have huge concerns about the way in which data has been very selectively chosen to suggest that much more should be dug in the south of the county than the west.

"The fact that more than 40 per cent of what is to be dug will be sent outside the county has been completely ignored and major areas of growth within Oxfordshire have just been forgotten so that the analysis is totally skewed."

Ms Atkins added: "There will be vehicles transporting sand and gravel and there is bound to be an effect on the landscape.

"It would not be unusual for gravel extraction to take place for a couple of decades once it has started."

Ms Atkins said all members of the council will have to approve the minerals strategy but she did not expect them to vote on the issue until after the county council elections in May.

Campaign to Protect Rural England minerals consultant Arnold Grayson said earlier the council's proposed figures for extraction were 42 per cent higher than previous drafts of the plan.

Grundon Sand and Gravel has put forward a planning application to extract aggregate from land at New Barn Farm, west of Wallingford and has consulted the public on the proposals.

Grundon bought the 165-acre site at New Barn Farm in January, 2015.

The company is now proposing to extract 2.5 million tonnes of sand and gravel from 67 acres of the site, at a rate of approximately 140,000 tonnes a year.

A Grundon Sand and Gravel spokesman said earlier this would mean an extraction period of about 18 years – followed by a further two years to complete restoration of the site.

The site would be approached via a new, purpose-designed access point off the A4130.

The Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan was approved by the county council in March 2015 and submitted for independent examination by a planning inspector in December 2015.

Following a hearing held in September last year the inspector issued an interim report.

The inspector concluded that the provision for mineral working should be as the council proposed in the submitted plan.

A spokeswoman from Oxfordshire County Council said: “In 2015 a total of 0.768 million tonnes of sharp sand and gravel were sold from quarries in Oxfordshire.

“The Minerals and Waste Local Plan: Part 1 – Core Strategy provides for the supply of 1.015 million tonnes per annum of sharp sand and gravel from extraction in Oxfordshire over the plan period to 2031. This is in accordance with the conclusions of the Inspector in his Interim Report.”