Letter: Quarries and landscapes

Sir: As a lover of the Peak District, and a manager working within the quarrying industry, I was disappointed by your report "The good versus the bad and ugly" (1 June).

I am well aware of the intrusion our business makes to the Peak District scenery; irrespective of whether the quarry lies inside or outside the National Park boundary. However, quarrying is an inevitable price society must pay, as the products we produce underpin every aspect of our lives.

Quarrying is a temporary use of land (even though temporary can mean many decades) and modern restoration techniques often mean that the industry returns land to the wider community in an improved ecological state. The comparison with the permanent use of "green field" sites for housing or road construction is deeply misleading.

Eldon Hill quarry is well over 100 years old and predates the formation of the Peak District National Park. RMC, the latest in a long line of owners, were prevented from carrying out a quality restoration of Eldon Hill by the refusal of the short period of extension of its life, which would have made that restoration possible.

DAVID JONES

Buxton, Derbyshire