POOR weather over recent years has led to a quarry operator asking for more time to excavate and restore a Bradford site.

Deep Lane Quarry in Clayton currently has planning permission to be worked until the end of December.

But a new application has now been submitted to Bradford Council that would allow work to continue on the site until June 2021.

The site has been used to produce hand riven paving and roofing stones for 80 years. In recent years a number of end dates have been given for the work at the site to cease.

But Bradford Council has granted extensions to the dates after owners Yorkshire Stone Quarries (Bradford) Limited applied for more time to excavate the site.

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One issue that has affected the operation of the quarry is water pooling in areas after periods of heavy rain. This prevents the site from being worked.

The last application to extend the time the quarry could be worked was approved in 2016. One condition was that “All operations relating to the winning and working of minerals shall cease by 31 December 2019.”

The company has now applied for planning permission to vary that condition to allow them to work the site until June 20 2021 - adding 18 months to the original deadline.

Another condition imposed in 2016 was that restoration of the site would be completed “within 12 months of the permanent cessation of mineral working or by December 31 2020, whichever is the sooner.”

The new application also calls for that condition to be altered to “restoration shall be completed within 12 months of the permanent cessation of mineral working or by 30 June 2022, whichever is the sooner.”

Access to the site is off Middlebrook Walk, just off Thornton Road, and just west of Scholemoor Cemetery.

The company’s new application says: “It was anticipated that Deep Lane Quarry would be fully worked and restored by December 2019. However, as the site is almost exclusively worked by hand, it is highly dependent on weather conditions and is prone to ‘ponding’ of surface water run-off.

“Heavy rainfall events during key working months (March-October) over recent years has frustrated the working and restoration of the site resulting in a need for a nominal extension of time to complete the working and restoration.

“An 18-month extension of time would not result in any adverse environmental impact as there are no proposed changes to the operations, purely an extension to the timescales.”

A decision on the application is expected in September.