SPECTRES of gravel pits in the greenbelt at Roeshot Hill and Walkford and heavy lorries trundling though Highcliffe and Christchurch have been raised in the latest round of public consultation by Hampshire County Council.

In its draft minerals and waste development strategy now taking shape for the next decade, county planners have re-opened the long-running debate over exploiting sand and gravel reserves lying underneath farmland between Walkford and Hinton.

The 160-acre Walkford Farm site, reckoned to yield 3.3 million tons of aggregate, was dropped as a preferred site for extraction in the current Hampshire minerals and waste local plan in 1998 following cross-border protests including 1,000 letters from Highcliffe Residents' Association.

But with short-term gravel reserves now running low, the Walkford Farm site first mooted for digging in 1992 is likely to be revived as a preferred location for future extraction.

And a new site for a potential gravel pit has been proposed at Roeshot Hill on farmland north of the railway line, which forms the county boundary.

In a report to the community services committee on Wednesday June 21, Christchurch borough councillors will be recommended to lodge objections to the inclusion of both sites in the emerging minerals strategy.

Town hall planning officers say the gravel operations at both sites, within the greenbelt and on the fringe of the newly-created New Forest national park, will have an adverse impact on the surrounding countryside and built environment.

As well as being a blot on the landscape, the gravel pits will also create dust and noise nuisance for nearby homes including the potential new house building earmarked for Roeshot Hill south of the railway line.

The transport of materials from the gravel pit and to its likely later role as a landfill will also mean more lorries using narrow lanes in the Walkford, Hinton and Burton areas as well as adding to heavy traffic on the A35 and A337 routes running through Christchurch and Highcliffe.