New date set for quarry inquiry

The quarry has been the focus of a protracted legal battle

The date for a new public inquiry into quarrying in the Peak District National Park has been set.

A hearing into quarrying operations at Backdale, on Longstone Edge near Bakewell, will start on 13 February.

Operators MMC Mineral Processing Ltd and landowners Bleaklow Industries are appealing against a stop notice placed by the park authority.

The inquiry will examine whether planning permission granted in 1952 allows the firms to remove limestone.

Enforcement notices

The quarry has become the focus for environmental campaigners who see it as spoiling an area of natural beauty.

The National Park authority served an initial enforcement notice in November 2004, MMC Ltd appealed and a planning inquiry was set up to resolve the issue.

But in March 2006, the public inquiry was cancelled after Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott declared the authority's action "null and void".

Since then the authority has used temporary enforcement notices to limit the quarry's operations.

Neither the park authority nor MMC Ltd wished to comment.