A NEW sand mine has been proposed for an area of outstanding natural beauty near Chieveley in the North Wessex Downs.

Areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) are legally protected because of their national importance and attractive landscapes.

The North Wessex Downs AONB covers about 74 per cent of West Berkshire. But more than 22 hectares of it could soon be turned into a mine for soft sand.

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West Berkshire Council has proposed a mine next to Chieveley Services, to extract between 400,000 and 670,000 tonnes of soft sand.

The mine is one of three new plans in the council’s minerals and waste local plan. The other two new mines are at Boot Farm, Brimpton Common, and Tidney Bed, Sulhamstead.

The plans were detailed by Elise Kinderman, minerals and waste team leader, in a report to the full council meeting on January 9, when councillors will vote whether to put that plan out to public consultation.

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Ms Kinderman said: “Although the [Chieveley mine] is within the AONB, it is considered that there are exceptional circumstances such as to justify allocation within the AONB.”

These exceptional circumstances include a “pressing need for soft sand within West Berkshire”, and a preference to mine sand within the district rather than import it all from Oxfordshire, according to a council topic paper from September last year.

Ms Kinderman said the Boot Farm mine would extract 750,000 tones of sharp sand and gravel, and the Tidney Bed mine would extract 1 million tonnes of sharp sand and gravel.

If councillors vote to approve the plan, the public will have six weeks to give their views, likely from January 20 to March 2. After the public consultation, the council will send the plan to the government for approval. It should then finally be adopted in June 2021.

The main mineral deposits in West Berkshire are sharp sand and gravel, used to make concrete, and soft sand which is used for making mortar.

The draft mineral plan states: “Sand and gravel quarrying does not require blasting and, due to the shallow nature of the deposits, they are relatively short lived in comparison to hard rock quarries. 

“However, the process of minerals extraction and transportation can have a significant effect on the local environment while the operations take place.”