A SECOND planning application to reopen a quarry after more than 100 years has been submitted to the county council.

Haltwhistle-based Border Stone Quarries submitted an application to quarry sandstone from Prudham Quarry near Frankham, Fourstones.

The quarry has been closed since 1920, bar a brief attempt to reopen it in the 1970s.

It is home to red squirrels and a pool of water known locally as the Blue Lagoon.

A previous application was rejected by councillors in 2018, but Border Stone Quarries has returned with a second application.

The move has caused outrage among residents. Judith Whitaker, who lives nearby, said people were preparing to battle a second application.

She said: “Here we are again with this ridiculous situation. I can't believe they've put in another planning application.

"They haven't addressed any of the issues that were raised when it was rejected last time.

"The thing that has annoyed all of us is that everybody else in the country is trying to look after themselves and the community, and this company is just into profit.

"You can't have public meetings and it makes it harder for us to object."

"I think there's a mix of anger and real despair that we have no proper opportunity to actually fight this because of the timing, but the problems we had last time still stand."

Objections to the last application centred around the volume of lorries travelling to and from the proposed quarry, flooding risk, and damage to wildlife.

However, the new application states that a restoration scheme that will allow the area to naturally regenerate after work is completed is included.

The extraction of sandstone will also not go down to the level of the groundwater to avoid flooding.

Border Stone Quarries declined to comment on the issue.