A bid by Thomas Scourfield and Sons to produce concrete blocks at Carew Quarry suffered a set-back this week when National Park planners refused permission for them to import cement onto the site.
Development control officer, Mr. Cathy Milner, told Wednesday's meeting of the authority that the firm was seeking a certificate of lawful use for the importation of raw materials, namely cement, for use in their proposed concrete batching plant.
"The bottom line is that they want to make concrete blocks from aggregate from the quarry," she said.
She added that one of the conditions of consent for the operation of the quarry stated that "no materials shall be processed on the application site other than those originating on the land granted permission for mineral working."
Officers felt that the imported cement and pumice required to be mixed with the aggregate would have to be 'processed' on site, thereby breaching that condition, although the applicants argued that by their very nature such materials had already been 'processed' and were just being utilised.
Professional legal advice on the matter had been sought, with counsel, agreeing that the application would result in the raw materials being 'processed' on site.
"Cement coming in in liquid form in a rotating drum, and leaving as a concrete block, in the eyes of our legal counsel, would be a 'process," Mrs. Milner said. "Therefore, a certificate of lawful use fails."
A 'second bite', an application to amend the conditions to exclude this clause, was deferred.
Mrs. Milner said that Government advice was that quarries could "add value to their business by making" and applications should be approved.
However, the quarry was "in a very sensitive area of the National Park and an SSSI."
Mrs. Milner said the views of the Environment Agency were vital to determining the application as were those of the highways authority, given the increase in traffic movements to and from the site resulting from the application.
As these had not been received, she requested that the application, and consideration of a General Development Order for the erection of a concrete batching plant on the site, be deferred.