Air quality concerns near a quarry have been raised by a health watchdog. 

Dr Janet Underwood from Rutland Healthwatch asked the county's director of public health, Mike Sandys, about Greetham residents' concerns while at a public meeting on Tuesday (December 2). 

During a discussion of the health protection annual report she said: "Are you actually monitoring the air quality around the quarries? My reason for asking is this is because some time ago now we heard from a Greetham resident who was very concerned about the PM10s (particulate matter less than 10 microns) which can be linked to respiratory diseases such as COPD and lung cancer." 

Mike Sandys said air quality and its monitoring is the responsibility of environmental health. 

He said he had had conversations with concerned local residents and it was 'one of those things to keep tabs on'. 

David Baker, who has been involved along with Greetham Parish Council to successfully campaign for monitoring at the operating Heidelberg quarry, says he has concerns about plans for a new quarry close to the village that was given planning permission in 2022. It is due to be open next year. 

The parish council has met the environmental health department about monitoring of the site once it comes into operation, but feels that more could be done. 

He said: "We need to monitor the PM10s both upstream and downstream of the quarry, so that we can understand whether there are peaks at certain times." 

Rutland County Council has been contacted for comment about the monitoring conditions that may come into place. 

The health protection report, which looked at 2024, recorded that there were fewer than 10 cases of measles in the county, no cases of Mpox.

Whooping cough cases had increased, which led to a local incident team being convened. 

Childhood immunisation for the county is above the national average and a new vaccination programme began in September 2024 to protect pregnant women and their newborn babies from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).