Aggregates stockpiled in tax race (From Western Telegraph)

Aggregates stockpiled in tax race

HUGE STOCKPILES of gravel and sand have built up across Pembrokeshire after industry and the public sector raced to beat a controversial tax on aggregates.

Pembrokeshire County Council and private companies correctly anticipated that the Chancellor would slap £1.60 tax on every tonne of sand, gravel and rock sold.

Aggregates are now being stored across Pembrokeshire and have led to the closure of some roadside lay-bys.

The Government claims that the aggregates tax has been introduced to bring about environmental improvements in quarrying areas. But quarrying firms and their customers across Pembrokeshire will lose out, claims the Quarry Products Association.

The £1.60 per tonne aggregates tax will add up to a £35 million tax burden per year for Wales, says its director general Simon van der Byl. The Treasury has decided that only £17 million of £35 million tax taken will be returned to Wales. This means that the Welsh economy and communities in Wales will be losing £18 million per year. One of Pembrokeshires biggest quarrying firms, F. H. Gilman and Co, says companies will have no alternative but to pass on the tax to their customers. We are not in a position to absorb £1.60 a tonne on the materials we sell. It is a large proportion of the cost of the materials, says area manager, Peter Scoble.

The company was forced to make staff redundant last autumn because of local authority cutbacks. It fears that this could create further job losses. The new tax will also add to the companys administration burden. The Government argues that the tax will make people think about using primary aggregates more sustainably and get people to consider recycled materials such as crushed and screened demolition materials. For Pembrokeshire County Council the cost of the tax could ultimately be passed on to its community charge payers.

The county council admits alternatives to primary aggregates should be considered, but argues that for many operations the quality of these is not sufficient to meet the required standards.

Extracts from navigation dredging, such as that previously undertaken by the county council at Neyland, will be exempt from the tax. Mixed colour glass is already being used in the production of cement in Wales.

The scheme, promoted by the Wales Environment Trust, provides a strong incentive for councils and private enterprises to recycle because it pays by the ton for glass delivered to Conway Concretes in Newport, Gwent.

The absence of recycling facilities in the county was recently highlighted by the operators of pubs and bars who are sending tons of glass to landfills each week.