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[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CONSENT HEARING FOR THIS APPLICATION TOOK PLACE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER 2024.  A DECISION BY THE HEARINGS PANEL IS EXPECTED LATER IN 2024 AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE APPLICATION SET OUT IN THIS WEBSITE WILL BE AMENDED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THAT FINAL DECISION]

Welcome

Thank you for visiting our website for the proposed Burnham Quarry on Aylesbury Road, Burnham. On these pages, we outline our proposal for the staged quarrying of gravel at the site, including environmental considerations and progressive rehabilitation. 

The proposed Burnham Quarry is a long-term investment in the Canterbury region and will support the supply of aggregates which is essential for building homes, workplaces, community assets and roading,  where people work, live and play.   The Burnham property offers a smart approach with community sensitivity in mind with the dual-purpose use of land.  The farming operations continue to be the main activity and a relatively small portion of the site, well set back, will be under quarry development at any one time.

This website forms part of our public consultation and your comments and questions are welcomed via our contact us page. Our full consent application and associated documentation can be viewed here.

Key features of the proposal

• We propose to progressively quarry the 360 hectare site (outlined in yellow below). The gravel would be quarried and processed on site and then supplied to building projects in the surrounding region.
• While there are no known waahi tapu sites or other known sites of significance on the Site Winstone looks forward to working with Mahaanui Kurataiao Ltd, who represent Te Taumutu Runanga and Te Ngai Tuahuriri Runanga, for the life of the quarry.
• It is proposed to extract aggregate from the Site alongside farming activity on the land prior to quarrying and post rehabilitation. The active quarry area will be a maximum of 40 hectares at any one time.
• As quarrying progresses in a clockwise direction, the previous stage will be rehabilitated back to pasture for farming use.
• Rehabilitation will utilise the existing soils onsite (which will be retained during extraction) together with arable silts created as part of quarry processing. Importing cleanfill is not proposed as part of the consent application.
• Activities relating to soil will be undertaken in accordance with a Soil Management Plan, which includes measures designed to ensure appropriate soil rehabilitation will be implemented at each phase of quarry extraction. 
• The Site will be accessed from Aylesbury Road where there are excellent sightlines in both directions.
• A mobile crushing plant will be installed in the initial stockpile/extraction area near the site entrance during the first part of the Construction Phase (when the stockyard, plant processing areas and the site administration facility are established) and will then be moved to the stockyard.
• Most of the aggregate processing for the life of the quarry will be undertaken towards the centre of the Site, at least 500m from any site boundary.
• Existing hedging around the perimeter of the site will be retained and together with bunding will screen the site from surrounding areas.
• The large majority of heavy vehicle movements will travel directly to and from the existing SH1 / Aylesbury Road intersection. Vehicle numbers will be restricted however until such time as this intersection is upgraded.
• Winstone is seeking a maximum of 750 heavy vehicle movements per day, which equates to 375 trucks visiting the quarry. On most days the average will be significantly lower than this.
• Dust will be managed by monitoring weather forecasts and weather conditions, and mitigation measures such as watering surfaces, processing aggregate when wet, minimising the amount of vegetation, overburden and soil removed, controlling vehicle speeds to 30 km/h on unconsolidated surfaces, and mulching, grassing and / or planting bare areas and bunds.
• Most of the water used at the quarry will be for processing aggregate, which will either fall on the ground, or drain to silt settlement ponds, before discharging back to the aquifer. As no cleanfilling is proposed the main potential sources of groundwater contamination is from quarrying (fuels and lubricants), and post-rehabilitation farming use. Both will be carefully managed by Winstone.
• The large majority of quarrying activities will be undertaken during the hours of 7am to 8pm (Monday to Saturday excluding public holidays).