Those campaigning against a major quarry extension into an area of Ancient Woodland have welcomed a further delay.

The Friends of Oaken Wood are hopeful the latest six-month delay to Kent County Council’s Minerals and Waste Local Plan indicates the tide of opinion is turning against allowing a 96-hectare extension of the Hermitage Quarry in Aylesford.

Cllr Rachel Rodwell (Green), who helped found the Friends of Oaken Wood in February of this year, said: “The pressure is working.

“The huge response from the public over the past year or so has clearly demonstrated that simply destroying an ancient woodland for more construction, particularly given the dire state of the natural world, is not acceptable.”

KCC has received more than 26,000 letters of objection to the plan, which would allow a further 20 million tons of ragstone to be extracted

Maidstone council, under the previous Conservative administration, initially supported the quarry extension, but since the last local elections, the new Green/Lib Dem administration in Maidstone has come out in opposition.

Cllr Rodwell said: “Initially, KCC had extended an extra year to review their plans for the ancient woodland and now they have added a further six months to contemplate whether the loss of 50 hectares of irreplaceable ancient woodland, is acceptable.”

“We will continue to campaign against the loss of the woodland until KCC finally relents and allows the woodland to stay.”

KCC has been reviewing its Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan, which is essentially the strategy for mineral and waste planning in the county from 2030 to 2039.

The plan was submitted for examination by a government inspector in May and was the subject of public hearings in September.

KCC said: “We are now working on the potential modifications from the examination process which, subject to the inspector’s views, will go out for public consultation shortly.

“As a result, the Mineral Sites Plan has been delayed.”

Hermitage Quarry had been promoted by Gallagher Aggregates for hard rock extraction in a Call For Sites back in December 2022. It was the only site to be nominated

KCC said the nomination was “still at the detailed technical assessment stage” and said: “We are not yet in a position to advise whether the site should be allocated or not in a revised Mineral Sites Plan.

“If the nominated site is considered suitable for hard rock extraction, it is now anticipated that adoption would take place in September 2026.”

The nominated site would involve the extension of Gallaghers’ existing Hermitage Quarry further into Oaken Wood.

While campaigners say this would destroy the Ancient Woodland forever, Gallaghers maintain it is the soil that is valuable in an Ancient Woodland - not the trees. Their plan involves taking off the top lay of soil and storing it while the ragstone underneath is quarried out.

After quarrying, the void would be back-filled, the preserved topsoil returned and new trees planted.

Gallaghers say this preserves the qualities of the Ancient Woodland and is the technique they have adopted at the existing quarry.