Sibelco has been given the go-ahead to extract industrial sand from Somerford Farm and set up a pipeline to transfer it to the existing Bent Farm Quarry near Congleton.

Cheshire East's strategic planning board was unanimous in approving the application, despite objections from Congleton town councillor Robert Douglas who raised several concerns, including health fears.

Cllr Douglas told the committee yesterday (Wednesday): "Local residents, including myself, have seen instances of unacceptable water run-off from Bent Farm Quarry contaminating nearby streams heading towards Bagmere SSSI.

"Therefore, independent water monitors should be installed to clearly prove that no such contamination is taking place at Somerford Farm, with the results made public."

He added: "There are about 450 homes within 1,000m of this quarrying site.

"Residents have real concerns about silicosis, so to reassure us, particularly regarding the young, elderly and infirm, independent air quality monitors should be installed with the results made public."

Karen Jinks, site manager at Bent Farm Quarry, told the committee that, regarding the water breach, action had been taken to ensure if anything happened again it wouldn't go into the water sources.

She said with regard to air borne dust, the site is monitored and staff are tested every year.

Mrs Jinks said she had worked at Sibelco for 17 years 'and in the time I've been there I've never heard of anybody within the business who are exposed to any mineral or exposed to silicosis'.

The council's planning officer told the committee silicosis is primarily an occupational disease and the HSE said there are no cases documented in members of the public.

The application site at Somerford is located to the west of Congleton and comprises three connected parcels of land.

The most northern parcel is a 35 hectare area of land lying to the south of A54 and west of A536.

The second is a 28 hectare site comprising the Bent Farm Quarry processing plant site.

Connecting the two areas is a narrow linear parcel of land which runs south to north west from the Bent Farm Quarry processing plant site crossing Wallhill Lane, the A534 and an area of agricultural land.

The sand extracted at Somerford would be processed at the existing Bent Farm Quarry plant site and then loaded onto HGVs for transportation to customer's processing site prior to dispatch to customers.

Congleton councillor Heather Seddon (Lab) moved the application be approved.

"I think it's an important economic site," she said.

"The mitigations to store the area have been thought through, monitoring of the water and the air has been thought through, signage on the road thought through."

Cllr Stewart Gardiner (Knutsford, Con) seconded the approval.

The application was approved with conditions.