The Great Winter Hill Quarrying Disaster
Statements on these pages are based on Bolton Council's publicly available online planning records, Bolton Council's website, government records and material published by the Greater Manchester Authority. Some from the time is no longer publicly available online. I am unable to vouch for any accuracy. In places I have expressed my opinion. Nothing on these pages should therefore be taken as fact.
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MONTCLIFFE QUARRY ON WINTER HILL is now continuing northwards higher than ever before on the West Pennine Moors above Horwich. Part of it is a 1.93 million tonne northerly extension refused twice by Bolton Council but subsequently approved after a government Planning Inspector awarded costs against the Council for having refused it. A further 1.4 million tonnes is being extacted by the 'stabilisation' of the extensive north east face, originally approved in 2014 on health and safety grounds and approved again in 2023, after little was done for a number of years and the approval lapsed. The Council's planning officers recommended approval of both.
The northerly extension
Timeline:
Jan. 2019: 05250/19 planning application
March 2021: 05250/19 refused
May 2021: 11067/21 planning application
Jan. 2022: 05250/19 applicant appealed
July 2022: 11067/21 refused
Dec. 2022: 05250/19 appeal dismissed
Dec. 2022: 11067/21 applicant appealed
July 2023: 11067/21 appeal upheld
Stone is now being extracted
The 'stabilisation' of the north east face
Timeline:
Nov. 2014: 93076/14 planning application
Feb. 2015: 93076/14 approved
Feb. 2021: 93076/14 approval expired
Feb. 2021: 10395/21 extend time by 10.5 years
Sept. 2023: 10395/21 approved
Delegated, no officers' report available
Stone is now being extracted
Main Montcliffe Quarry
Oct. 2016: 97782/16 planning application
Extend 86368/11 and 93076/14 from 2021 to 2033
Jan. 2017: 97782/16 approved
Map from Planning Application 15401/23
This modern map shows the extent of Montcliffe Quarry more or less as was until 2024 (red line). The blue line shows the extent of the land owned by the quarry operator. The green line shows the site of a 'lateral northerly' extension to Montcliffe Quarry which commenced in 2024. The pale blue (turquoise) line is the approved extent of Planning Application 15401/23 for remedial works to the north east face.
The planning application for the northerly extension was refused by Bolton Council's Planning Committee on 8th March 2021 for the following reasons:
- The proposed development, both during the extraction phase and following restoration, would fail to maintain and respect the landscape character of the area, contrary to Policies CG3 and OA1.11 of Bolton's Core Strategy.
- The proposed development would constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt in that it would not preserve the openness of the Green Belt, contrary to Policy CG7AP of Bolton's Core Strategy.
- The proposed mineral extraction would result in a loss of and harm to biodiversity during the operational phase of the development, contrary to Policy CG1.1 of Bolton's Core Strategy.
The quarry operator appealed against the refusal starting on 19th January 2022. The appeal was dismissed by Planning Inspector J P Sargent. A significant factor in the dismissal was that the base of the quarry floor of the proposal was to be at some 264m AOD and that groundwater would not be affected. The appellant sought to amend the application so that the quarry floor would only go down to 290m AOD, some 26m higher than initially proposed. The reason for this was that further investigations had found the groundwater levels to be significantly higher than previously assessed. The Planning Inspector said the amended scheme would not be the same as the one refused by the Council and lodged under the appeal. Case dismissed.
Planning Application 11067/21 had already been submitted in April 2021 as a resubmission of the previously refused Planning Application 05250/19. The only real difference was a shallower quarry depth, 820,000 less tonnes of mineral extraction and completion in 14 years rather than 20. Again, against the advice of the Council's planning officers, it was refused in July 2022 for the same reasons as before.
Three and a half years had passed since the first application in January 2019. A second appeal was made in December 2022. The appellant submitted a Statement of Case but there is no record of Bolton Council having done so. On 25 July 2023 the Planning Inspector J P Sargent allowed the appeal. Today, in the summer of 2025, the 'Lateral Northerly Extension' to Moncliffe Quarry is proceeding apace.
AOD refers to a height measurement taken above the Ordnance Datum, normally sea level. The upper height of the northerly extension on Winter Hill is 245m AOD, i.e. about 804 feet above sea level, just 18 metres short of Rivington Pike.
Appeal costs
As part of the appeal against Bolton Council's refusal of the second application 11067/21 the appellant (the quarry operator) applied for an award of appeal costs against the Council. The Planning Inspector J P Sargent agreed. He said that when refusing the application, the Council had contended, amongst other things, that the extension to Montcliffe Quarry would be inappropriate by not preserving the openness of the Green Belt. The Council had said, for example, that the excavation would be visible against the rounded hills when seen from the south, south-west and west. The inspector responded by saying the National Planning Policy Framework states that some impacts of mineral extraction on the Green Belt must be acknowledged. Given this national guidance, he said the Council had not demonstrated why these aspects of the scheme would result in a conflict with the Green Belt and that this was unreasonable.
He also said that the Council had offered little firm evidence of the scale of harm that would result from the loss of any habitats or the existing upland pasture. The pursuance of this concern was therefore also thought unreasonable.
He mentioned a 'disjoin' between the completion date for the existing Montcliffe Quarry (2033) and the proposed extension (2042). The Council had apparently showed no concern that the quarry operator would not be able complete the extension unless the date for the existing quarry was extended to allow access.
The inspector did say, however, that putting those matters aside, the Council identified what he considered to be reasonable concerns arising from the cumulative impact of quarry faces and their extension to higher ground, as well as the adverse effect of noise to nearby walkers. He also acknowledged that while a period of 20 years may not be lengthy in terms of mineral extraction, it may seem a long time for current residents and walkers to experience the effects of the works.
On 12th December 2022 the Inspector J P Sargent ordered that Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council must "pay Armstrongs Aggregates Limited the costs of the appeal proceedings described insofar as they relate to the second and third reasons for refusal, such costs to be assessed in the Senior Courts Costs Office if not agreed".
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