Retrospective bid to keep welfare unit and storage container at quarry to protect staff safety
Quarry bosses are hoping to win retrospective planning permission for a welfare unit and storage container – saying they are needed as essential facilities for their site workers.
Tim Miller, from Goldholme Stone Ltd, has applied to Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) to be allowed to keep a self-contained welfare unit and storage container at Castle Quarry, south of the A153 Sleaford Road, in Ancaster, near Sleaford.
The welfare unit provides office accommodation, a canteen, a drying room, toilet and a plant room.
The storage container is used for site equipment required to support the operation of the mineral extraction and aggregate processing operations.
The applicant wants to keep both for the ‘lifetime of the quarry’.
Castle Quarry is a limestone quarry south of Ancaster which is operated by Goldholme Stone Ltd and focuses on the extraction and processing of limestone to produce a range of building stone products.
The 6.9 hectare site has been subdivided into two main areas – with the southern section dedicated to mineral extraction and aggregate processing, while the northern section focuses on the main building stone processing facilities and site infrastructure.
The applicant said that while there are welfare and storage facilities in existing buildings in the north of the site, the distance between the two buildings means it’s “not practical for staff undertaking the extraction or aggregate production operations to use these facilities”.
The units in question were installed in 2025 to stop staff in the extraction part of the quarry needing to go to the north of the site.
In a statement, agent Oliver Craven from Hughes Craven Ltd said: “Both the welfare unit and storage container are temporary in nature and will not prejudice the recovery of any permitted mineral reserves or delay the restoration of the quarry.
“Following the removal of the units, the application site will be restored in line with the approved restoration scheme for the quarry.
“Overall, the development provides essential facilities to help ensure the safe, efficient operation of the quarry and will not result in any impacts upon either amenity or environmental receptors.”
The opening hours of the welfare and storage unit will be the same as the quarry – which is 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 7am to 12 noon on Saturdays.
The plans will be assessed by LCC, which will make a final decision at a later date.