A Shared Vision

Hanson UK and key conservation bodies work together in the Cambridgeshire Fens to create Britain’s largest reed bed, strengthening the area’s link with its wetland past

Hanson UK have invested heavily in expertise and resources to ensure their exhausted quarries are restored to the best-possible after-use.
As a result, a number of former Hanson sites have become important conservation or educational areas and over 80 have been designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Moreover, Hanson’s parent company, HeidelbergCement Group, has signed the Leadership Declaration on Biodiversity and has become the first company in the industry to adopt a group guideline for the promotion of biodiversity at its mineral extraction sites worldwide.

Wetland creation at Needingworth Quarry

The restoration of quarries is planned before extraction starts and as well as restoring quarries after they have been used, ongoing restoration during their working life is also an important practice.

An example of this is ongoing wetland creation at Hanson’s Needingworth Quarry in Cambridgeshire. It is one of the largest sand and gravel extraction sites in the UK, covering an area of approximately 975ha adjacent to the river Great Ouse.

Extraction began in 1995 and will span more than 30 years, during which time 28 million tonnes of sand and gravel will be removed. The restoration is being phased to create Britain’s biggest reed bed (460ha), along with open meres, wet scrub and grassland, within a 700ha nature reserve.

The story of this visionary project began in the late 1980s. With reserves running out at three existing sites in the St Ives area, Hanson, then operating as ARC, acquired an interest in Over Fen, a large parcel of gravel-rich land adjacent to Needingworth village.

Securing planning permission was not easy; it took four years and the final consent included over 100 conditions, including the requirement for a substantial financial contribution towards construction of the Needingworth bypass.

By the mid-1990s production had begun and in 1996 the then Prime Minister, John Major, formally opened the quarry, describing it as one of the most modern sand and gravel operations in Europe.

Cambridgeshire County Council had initially approved a scheme to return the land to a mixture of agriculture, leisure and conservation. However, as part of the planning consent, and through lobbying by various conservation bodies, including English Nature (now Natural England), the RSPB, The Wildlife Trust, the Countryside Commission and the Environment Agency, Hanson were asked to prepare a feasibility study to look at restoring the site to a wetland nature reserve.

A wetland past

The creation of new wetlands has been identified as a national priority in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan endorsed by government. They are needed to secure the future of threatened species including the bittern, which had been reduced to just 13 booming males in the UK in 1998, and to provide new habitat to off-set projected future loses of internationally important coastal wetlands through coastal erosion.

The Fens owe their existence to their origins as the nation’s largest lowland wetland with impassable swamps, rich grazing and abundant fish and other wildlife. The links to this wetland past are strong and remain in the rich dark soils, the pattern of settlement, and in the wildness of the last remaining wetland fragments. Within the Fens only a few large sites escaped drainage; Wicken and Woodwalton Fens are now recognized as internationally important wildlife habitats and have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC).

The large washlands of the Ouse and Nene rivers, which attract internationally important numbers of wildfowl species, including Bewick’s swan and widgeon, are designated under the RAMSAR convention. Smaller fragments, containing typical fenland wildlife, such as reed buntings and dragonflies, remain in every ditch and drain with reeds being the living sign of a wetland past.

Since 1600, some 97% of the original wetlands in this area have been lost and species have been confined to ever smaller sites. Some, such as the bittern and the spectacular swallowtail and large copper butterflies, have disappeared altogether as fenland breeding species. The loss of habitats places more species at risk and increases the need for expensive specialist management. More habitat is needed to sustain these populations for which the Fens are so important.

Creating new habitat suitable for important species is a technical challenge. Habitats such as reed beds and seasonally flooded grassland are relatively easy to create and can quite rapidly support key wetland species, such as wildfowl. The creation of peat-based fen is a far greater challenge, as this requires conditions where new peat can form over many centuries. As a result, restoring fens from low-level mineral workings provides the only real opportunity for long-term wetland creation.

Working together

One of the conservation bodies keen to restore the Needingworth site to wetland – and undoubtedly the most enthusiastic – is the RSPB, which worked with Hanson’s in-house experts to design the nature reserve. The proposals included access for the public with 32km of footpaths and educational and interpretation activities.

Together the partners worked through the feasibility process, which included a comprehensive programme of public consultation to ensure community views were considered. The consultation included five public meetings, newsletters to 2,500 homes and resulted in more than 80% of local people supporting the proposal.

In July 2007, a significant point in the development was reached when the first two phases of restored quarry workings, totalling 44ha, were handed over to the RSPB. A further phase was handed over in 2008 and, over the coming years, Hanson will progressively donate further small parcels of land as sand and gravel extraction is completed. The RSPB will manage and develop this land for nature conservation.

Hanson UK’s chief executive, Patrick O’Shea, said: ‘This project shows that we can make a very positive contribution to the UK’s landscape, its wildlife, its habitats and its biodiversity. We can all take pride in what is being created at Needingworth. A vital industry – in this case quarrying – working hand in hand with a leading conservation organization, planners, regulators and the community to create and preserve vital new habitat.

‘The project demonstrates the enormous benefits that can be derived from working together, and the potential that responsible mineral extraction can bring, both to the environment and to biodiversity.’

Creating new habitat

The restoration at Needingworth, which is being undertaken in close co-operation with the RSPB, has been planned using a modular system, with each module separated by clay-rich bunds. Each module is between 20 and 40ha, which represents around two years of excavation. Land-forming and reed planting takes place as the modules are completed.

Accurate water level management will be possible within each module by constructing a peripheral ditch and sluice system. Water levels will be maintained between 70cm and 15cm above the ground surface to maximize the extent of established wet reed bed.

Invading scrub will be controlled but some areas of isolated scrub will be permitted to develop on higher ground (excluding bunds) up to a maximum limit of 8% of each module area. It is anticipated that cut reeds removed from site will be sold, generating some income to assist with the management and monitoring costs. A programme of research, survey and monitoring will be introduced to allow the success of the habitat creation to be assessed.

Public benefits

Access to the nature reserve is being progressively opened to local people through the development of the public rights of way network, with footpaths, bridleways and cycleways. In time, the Ouse Fen Nature Reserve will become a major resource for informal recreation for local people and visitors alike, as a large green space in the fast-growing Cambridge Growth Area. By providing an educational resource for people of all ages, the reserve will foster wider interest in biodiversity and conservation.

Wild flower meadow at Batts Combe Quarry

As part of Somerset Wildlife Trust’s ‘Mendip Hills Living Landscape’ project, an inert waste tip at Hanson’s Batts Combe Quarry, in Cheddar, is being transformed into a wild flower meadow.

The work involves transferring grass and locally rare plant seeds from a site Hanson own 500m away, known as The Perch. It is SSSI designated because of its calcareous grassland, rare plant species and important mammal populations, including the dormouse and five species of bat.

The new wild flower meadow is being created on the site of the quarry waste and overburden tip, which covers approximately 1ha. It has been covered with topsoil and would normally be seeded with a commercial grass species, but the Trust suggested that The Perch could be used as a donor seed source to regenerate the bare earth and recreate valuable local habitat.

After testing the soil to ensure compatibility, a crop of green hay was taken from the nearby wild flower meadow and spread across the receptor site. It was then rolled in to assist germination.

The results of the translocation will not be known until later this year, but Hanson say early signs are very encouraging. Monitoring will be carried out by the Trust to establish the success of the project with a view to potential use on other sites in the future.