Thank you for publishing my letter and photograph last week that showed a pile of quarried ballast in Wootton adjacent a sign opposing the sourcing of such material locally.

Well it seems that particular case of suspected Nimbyism was not an isolated incident.

I came across this scene (inset picture) in Palmers Road, Wootton, this week. 

Once again, in the shadow of a poster opposing local gravel extraction, is a pile of building material that, it is reasonable to assume, has been similarly quarried, albeit out of sight and out of mind of WAGE (Wootton Again Gravel Extraction) supporters.

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For me, both images speak for themselves and the message is clear: we all want and use building materials so surely the answer is to quarry them locally in a way that can be regulated and controlled by the local planning process.

Thinking that we can build our driveways, patios and extensions without a thought about where these materials have come from is, like WAGE’s arguments, simply not sustainable.