Point of Ayre quarry extension approved despite loss of rare fungi habitat

The planning committee has approved an expansion of sand and gravel extraction at Point of Ayre Quarry, despite concerns about the loss of habitat used by scarce species of fungi.

Island Aggregates’ application covers about 47 hectares of farmland immediately west of the existing workings at Cranstal, Bride, according to Isle of Man Today. The extension is expected to yield around 3 million tonnes of material, dug to a depth of 10 metres.

The application is intended to keep output at its current level while lengthening the working life of the quarry. Extraction is expected to run for roughly 30 years, with final restoration to be finished within two years after that.

The committee heard that the site supports four globally vulnerable species of fungi, including the spotted blewit and waxcaps, along with six nationally scarce invertebrates. The land sits next to Areas of Special Scientific Interest and the Ayres National Nature Reserve. It also contains two Second World War bunkers and the bases of radar masts linked to them.

The principal planning officer recommended approval. She called the case an “unusual and finely balanced” judgement, weighing the need to protect an important source of minerals for the island against the loss of ecologically valuable habitat.

She told members that restoring the land in phases would give real scope for creating and managing new habitat over the long term, but that it would not reproduce what is lost.

Committee member Matthew Warren asked whether the fungi could be transplanted. He was told this was not possible, and that waxcap grasslands take hundreds of years to become established.

Paul Adamson of Island Aggregates told the committee the quarry was the island’s only indigenous source of sand and gravel. He said the application mattered to the wider construction industry and the Manx economy.

“If we can’t produce this material locally it has to be imported by sea,” he said, adding that this would bring higher costs and risks to supply chains.

Mr Adamson said the company accepted that extraction carried environmental obligations. He said it had worked closely with technical experts to reduce the impact.

Under the plans, the land would be restored in stages as digging finishes. The worked ground would become a large wildlife area made up of ponds and wetland, grassland, scrub and patches of bare sand.

Manx BirdLife has already converted some 106 acres of former gravel pits at the Point of Ayre into a wildlife haven, Isle of Man Today reported. A further 120 acres is expected to join the nature reserve once quarrying on the present site ends.

Committee chairman Rob Callister agreed that the decision was finely balanced. Members approved the application by five votes to one, with Mr Warren the only member to vote against.