A planning application has been submitted to film a movie in the quarry (rumoured to be a Mission impossible film). The application outlines quite a few changes and building works. Details below at the planning portal.
Yep, it's Darlton, they've even got a photo of the little rockfall that I asked about earlier in the summer on the right of Sunny Sector.
They either didn't notice the bolts in the wall they intend to build on/over or decided not to. I'm pretty certain a peregrine was nesting on the left of the South wall this summer too. I didn't read everything but didn't see that mentioned either.
This is Darlton Quarry. There were guys in last week with a huge cherry picker and a min i digger investigating the place. We asked if it was OK to climb and they said Yes no problem! They were looking mainly at the south side of the quarry above the main wall. We were in Sunny (White Stripes) Wall. They seemed friendly enough but gave no explanation of what they were surveying for!
Usually surveyors and digger drivers are happy to talk to anyone to extend working time! They seemed pleasant enough, just doing a job and they were happy enough to talk to us! But I they were just sussing out the safety of the south face and the ground structure. TRhey really had not much idea why.
As a Stoney resident, I feel I should be appalled at the unnecessary noise, disturbance, traffic etc...
...but they're going to drive a 60 tonne locomotive off the edge of a cliff to fall into a pool of water below! That's so magnificently bonkers, I want to be there when it happens!
(For Toby, the peregrine is mentioned briefly in the main document, but the section of the ecological assessment that outlines what is recommended they do about it is redacted).
If you can Airbnb a spare room for a few weeks sounds like you'll be quids in according to the bit I read on input into the local economy! I can do a good deal on our sofa bed in the front room just over the hill in Holmesfield if Mr Cruise needs somewhere slightly away from the hubbub of Stoney for when he arrives.
Odd about redacting something, although it's not that I know anything about planning applications. So maybe it isn't odd. I walked through Darlton Quarry recently while out for a walk with my family. I've climbed there a few times this summer but had never looked into the little office building by the entrance before. A bit Marie Celeste-like in that there's normal stuff left there but it all look like no one has been in there in many years.
I'm sure that Stoney will be much too scruffy and low rent for Mr Cruise. A sofa in the much tonier neighbourhood of Holmesfield, though, that's a very different matter.
I was thinking that it's only a couple of years since they finished quarrying in Darlton, but it turns out to be 2008 when they stopped.
> (For Toby, the peregrine is mentioned briefly in the main document, but the section of the ecological assessment that outlines what is recommended they do about it is redacted).
"if the peregrine mysteriously disappears then we don't have to worry about it".
About the redaction, I asked a friend who's on a planning committee (not PDNP), and he said it's routine to redact references to peregrine falcons in planning documents, because of the risk of them being stolen. As, it seems, has already happened in this location. They generally remove badger details too.
I thought I did, but I wasn't sure. I don't think many people are pro-raptor persecution, well not here anyway, but with the fox hunting discussion the other day, some people are of the "hanging's too good for them" persuasion, or in this case maybe the "slap on the wrists and smallish fine from the court is too good for them" persuasion.
They contractors were in Darlton again today. They were 'descaling a section of the south side, work which looks as though it may take a few days. The wall on the upper tier they are descaling looks as though some intrepid route setter could make some use of it. I am not sure if they are going to descale all the way to the quarry floor, but if they did, great potential for more new routes.
According to the man in charge, after a quick check of the plans and a look at where the routes were, the work should not affect the existing routes. He seemed surprised when I asked if the plan is to run a train off the end of a broken bridge into a 'river' (They are going to dig out some of the backfill and create a large pool) When asked where they were going to put the spoil as it would be a shame to damage the routes he said they intended to put it at the east end as they would need it to refill the hole afterwards. He asked me to wear a hard hat whilst in the quarry in case H & S came around. Also to not go too close to the work!
He also asked about ways to contact the climbing community (maybe to see if we were getting pissed off) about closures so I suggested this forum.
