ANGRY residents have formed an action group to try to prevent a quarrying project on land east of Hexham.

Thompson’s of Prudhoe revealed plans to extract thousands of tonnes of sand and gravel from an area known as Anick Grange Haughs, next to Hexham’s Egger factory on Anick Road.

But people living in and around Hexham are opposing the plans and met at the weekend to form the Save Our Valley campaign group.

The quarry site would be overlooked by hundreds of homes, and there are concerns about the increased volume of traffic with 50 heavy lorry movements expected per day.

Campaigner John Halliday said: “This is a plan to desecrate an entire valley simply to increase the profits of one company.

“The sand and gravel deposits represents easy pickings for them, but for us it will be an eyesore and 30 years of dirt, noise and danger.”

Ryan Molloy, the development and environmental manager at Thompson’s, said the company had successfully worked two similar sites in Tynedale and it had appointed a range of consultants to investigate the impact operations may have at the Anick site. He said the scheme would ensure local wildlife would continue to flourish, and that the company was planning to provide flood water storage in the Tyne Valley. He added that further consultation with the public would be carried out before a planning application was submitted.