The Stamford Stone Company says up to 30 jobs will be created after it received approval to extend one of its Clipsham quarry sites.

The approval by Rutland County Council will safeguard the existing stone supply from its Clipsham Bidwells quarry site for the next 30 years whilst also allowing the site to be extended.

Director Laura Green said: "We are delighted with the decision to let us extend the quarry by 14ha to the south of the site. This extension will provide an uplift in the local economy and will create up to 30 new jobs in the area over the next 10 years."

Throughout the planning process, Stamford Stone says it has been in close consultation with local authorities and community groups to discuss the proposals and to provide all the surveys and reports required to fully evaluate a large-scale project like this.

Full noise and dust surveys were completed, along with ecology reports reviewing localised bat and wildlife habitats and populations and archaeology and hydrology reports.

Laura explained: "This project will include a phased restoration of the area, meaning that we will be focusing on restoring the local biodiversity within the areas that have been quarried.

"This takes the form of infilling the older sites and reintroducing the natural wildlife to the site, so that in time you will never know we have quarried those areas."

The authorities have granted permission for the extraction of 500,000 tonnes of premium masonry block stone and 1.75 million tonnes of building/walling stone over the next 30 years.

In order to reduce the impact on the local community, part of Stamford Stone's quarry extension project includes the creation of on-site production facilities which will reduce the movement of the quarried stone, which originally would all have had to have been transported via the A1 to the current production site at Helpston.

Laura continued: "We are looking forward to working with the local community and we will do everything we can to minimise any disruption.

"The planning permission stipulates certain restrictions to our operation, including only quarrying on the site during working

hours to avoid any noise issues or inconvenience to local residents during unsocial hours."

Stamford Stone says it takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and quarries its stone both sustainably and ethically.

A 'robust environmental policy' is in place which recycles resources wherever possible and cuts the use of any unnecessary resources.

Laura added: "We will continue to focus on enhancing the local biodiversity of the area at both our Clipsham Bidwells and Clipsham Medwells Quarries with schemes that will improve existing drainage and carefully manage the ecology of the sites.

"For example, within the proposed extension site at Clipsham Bidwells, there is a patch of calcareous grassland that has been deemed a site of special interest and one, therefore, which we will, with the help of the experts, very carefully re-site."

Stamford Stone is the exclusive, global supplier of Clipsham limestone, operating Clipsham Medwells Quarry since 2001, and acquiring the Clipsham Bidwells Quarry in 2018 and is proud to supply stone for use on some of the UK's most

prestigious building projects.

Recently, Stamford Stone has been awarded two high profile contracts - its limestone has been specified for a new build project at the historical site of St John's College in Oxford and for use on a new facade at the CUS and Trinity

buildings in Cambridge.

The quarry extension works are due to start at the end of this summer.