ALTON Road sandpit owner Earthline Ltd is being investigated over claims it has carried out unauthorised works at the quarry - including transporting “thousands of tonnes” of waste through Farnham town centre to the site in breach of its planning permission.

Earthline was granted consent, against the wishes of many Wrecclesham residents, by Surrey County Council last October to extract a further 770,000 tonnes of soft sand and 512,000 cubic metres of clay from the 100-acre pit and infill the site with 2.6 million cubic metres of non-hazardous inert waste by 2029.

This permission included a dozen conditions that needed to be discharged prior to the resumption of activity on the site - including the approval of a detailed working plan setting out measures to protect human health and the environment, and a new gas management system to capture any residing gas after much of the sandpit was infilled with household, commercial and industrial waste in the early 1990s.

However, despite Earthline trucks being seen passing through the town centre to and from the site in recent weeks, to date not one of these conditions has been discharged and therefore campaigners believe any on-site activity concerning the proposed development is unauthorised.

The TRASH campaign group has reported this activity to the county council, which has confirmed it is investigating an alleged breach of planning consent by Earthline and has deferred formal enforcement action pending advice from specialists.

Tony Goodall, a member of TRASH and the Wrecclesham Village Society, told the Herald: “We have been actively involved over a considerable period advising Surrey County Council, the planning and regulating authority, of the unauthorised activity.

“We have provided photographic evidence before and after a visit by an enforcement officer to clearly identify the extent of the unauthorised activity of moving thousands of tonnes of waste material onto site.”

Earthline estimates an average 170 daily HGV movements will be required to undertake the approved mineral extraction and infilling at the pit, and Mr Goodall added Waverley Borough Council should also be concerned by the recent increase of lorries in the already-polluted town centre.

He continued: “Waverley is responsible for the Air Quality Management Area within the town centre. For this reason they should be particularly concerned about the unauthorised movement of the Earthline trucks travelling through the town instead of around the bypass as was the intention when conditional planning permission was granted.”

The campaigner also criticised a new planning application by Earthline - currently pending a decision by Surrey - as an attempt to “retrospectively” gain permission to discharge just three of the 12 conditions, plus a part of a fourth condition contained within the Section 106 agreement.

Earthline had not replied to the Herald’s request for a comment as the paper went to press. To view the developer’s latest application, visit the website www.waverley.gov.uk/planning and search for reference WA/2016/0726.