CAMPAIGNERS are demanding the Environment Agency drops plans to quarry nearly 400 acres of countryside.
Coggeshall Residents Against the Quarry (Craq) insist the Environment Agency’s bid to turn land between the River Blackwater and Cuthedge Lane into floodplain is the “least popular option”.
The Environment Agency recently released a promotional video outlining the project, which also includes the building of a 300-metre dam, and will see the owners of Bradwell Quarry – Blackwater Aggregates – excavate an area said to be twice the size of Coggeshall to create flood storage.
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Craq is calling for the scheme to be dropped altogether.
The Environment Agency says the new flood storage area and dam are needed to prevent widespread flooding in Coggeshall, Kelvedon and Feering.
It says it wants to prevent similar floods to the one which hit the village 19 years ago and claims there are no alternatives.
A Craq spokesman said: “This dam and quarry project is the most environmentally damaging and least popular of all flood management options considered.
“By far the most cost-effective and popular option would be natural flood management through tree-planting and creation of attenuation ponds.
“Instead the Environment Agency has chosen a commercial bedfellow, Blackwater Aggregates.
“There are many questions about this arrangement and Craq stands ready to challenge this contentious scheme robustly. We urge the Environment Agency and the land-owner, the London Diocese, to reconsider.”
The Environment Agency says the proposed scheme will protect 203 houses and 15 businesses from flooding.
The agency says quarrying operations will be at least 150m from any residential boundary along Grange Hill, Coggeshall.
A spokesman said: “With the impacts of climate change already being felt in the form of extreme weather, a long term sustainable solution is needed to reduce flood risk in the Blackwater Valley.
“Our extensive modelling shows that the proposed Flood Alleviation Scheme remains the best and only option for people and property in Coggeshall, Feering and Kelvedon.”
For more information on the scheme, go to consult. environment-agency.gov.uk.
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