QPA Showcase 2006

Further steps towards a sustainable industry

This year’s Quarry Products Association Showcase event once again revealed progress by the quarrying industry in improving and understanding its footprint both socially and environmentally. Sustainable development is at the heart of the industry’s agenda, and 2006 event at the Royal Lancaster Hotel was the first to take place since the publication of the QPA’s first sustainable development report.

Hosted for the second year running by BBC broadcaster Fiona Bruce, this year’s audience was the largest yet, comprising leading industry figures, MPs, senior civil servants, key regional highways officials, county planners and many others.

The ceremony featured video case studies capturing the essence of the effective work taking place across the industry. The short films covered topics such as product innovation, effective community relations, progress on health and safety and the push to increase recycling. The proceedings also featured a live interview with the QPA’s director general, Simon van der Byl, and Norman Baker MP, chair of the all-party Parliamentary Environmental Group.

Now in its 36th year, the event concluded with the announcement of the QPA’s annual Restoration Awards. Seven high-quality submissions were received by the association earlier in the year, all looking to secure the Cooper Heyman Cup – the industry’s premier award for best practice in quarry restoration.

This year the top accolade was presented to CEMEX UK Materials and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, who worked together on the Attenborough Nature Reserve near Nottingham. The reserve, a former sand and gravel quarry, has made huge strides in advancing its appeal to the public through an eco-friendly visitor centre, while enhancing the habitat and biodiversity of the area.

Two awards of special merit were presented to Hanson Aggregates UK, for their work at Ripon Quarry in North Yorkshire, and CEMEX UK Materials for Powburn Quarry in Northumberland. The former restored quarry is now home to an ecologically diverse lake and successful fishery, while Powburn offers similar high-quality conservation waters and angling.

Another former quarry was singled out to receive the Chairman’s Trophy, thanks to its commitment to community involvement, one of the key tenets of the industry’s approach to sustainable development. Brett Aggregates Ltd’s Conningbrook Quarry site is now home to the Julie Rose Athletics Stadium, which offers top-level sporting facilities to local people and Olympic-standard training opportunities for athletes who travel from further afield. The company worked closely with Ashford Borough Council and the Julie Rose Stadium Trust to complete this unique project, which will come into its own in the run up to the 2012 Olympics.

Three other restoration awards were presented to: Hanson Aggregates, for the restoration of Almington Quarry, in Staffordshire, largely to mixed agriculture; Lafarge Aggregates for their phased restoration scheme at Cadeby Quarry, near Doncaster; and Smith Bletchington for the creation of Graham Water, a 12-acre lake at the heart of the current active sand and gravel workings at Gill Mill Quarry, near Witney, Oxfordshire.

Simon van der Byl, director general of the Quarry Products Association, said: ‘This has been another terrific showcase of the industry’s activity over the last year. With the release of our first sustainable development report earlier in the year, we have continued to pledge our intention to operate sustainably; today’s event gave an insight to just what this means in the field with some truly innovative initiatives and admirable working practices.

‘Special credit must go to CEMEX UK Materials and their partners at the Notts Wildlife Trust for earning the right to have their names on the Cooper Heyman Cup. The Attenborough quarry site is not only a fantastic example of restoration, but also a special resource for the people living near the site. I encourage anyone to visit the centre and to witness for themselves the unique environments that can be created following quarrying. The reserve is a credit to this industry and this country’s ecology.’

Cooper Heyman Cup

CEMEX received the Cooper Heyman Cup for 2006 for their restoration work at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Nottinghamshire. The site is owned by CEMEX and run in conjunction with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Broxtowe Borough Council. Sand and gravel extraction at the site began in 1929 and contributed to the creation of lakes and islands. Work to cultivate the site as a home for wildlife began in 1966, when the resulting nature reserve was officially opened by Sir David Attenborough. Nearly 40 years later, in 2005, Sir David returned to the site to open a new visitor centre. This energy-efficient and eco-friendly building, which in its first week attracted over 4,000 visitors, provides an array of facilities including higher educational programmes, displays, refreshments, conference rooms as well as a focal point for the reserve’s activities. Today the nature reserve covers 365ha of former gravel pits and is home to a wide range of aquatic and waterside habitants. Over the years it has attracted more than 250 species of birds, including kingfishers and bitterns.