OVER 30 residents attended a drop-in session held by the new owners of an East Tynedale quarry which has not been worked for decades.

Thompsons of Prudhoe recently bought Merryshields Quarry, near Stocksfield, from Sita and is planning to extract the remaining mineral, sand and gravel reserves, before backfilling the site with soils in a bid to eventually restore it to farmland or a nature reserve.

An exhibition of proposals on how the site should be restored, including discussions over footpaths and the existing lake, took place at Stocksfield Community Centre on September 30.

Ryan Molloy, development and environmental manager at Thompsons, said: “The exhibition went very well and a number of local residents came in to view the information provided and give us their thoughts on the working of the site.

“In particular we discussed the various footpaths in the area and the proposed restoration scheme.

“Residents were broadly supportive of the existing lake being retained with some additional wildlife habitats around it and the rest of the site being restored to agriculture.

“A couple of issues that were raised were in relation to the level of traffic going through the village and we are very aware of this.

“We are considering this and the measures that we can take to make sure that the additional lorries do not make matters worse.”