LARGE scale gravel extraction at Roeshot could sound the death knell for tourism in Christchurch, claim worried councillors.

Of 37 potential sand and gravel extraction sites being put forward by landowners and minerals companies, four fall within Christchurch Borough Council territory.

Three – East Parley residual reserve, Hurn Court Farm and Parley Court phase three – are to the north-west of the town, but the massive Roeshot site is just the other side of the railway embankment, east of Burton.

And to make matters worse, it abuts a Hampshire site sharing the same access point onto the A35 at Hinton that looks highly likely to be given the go-ahead.

The Dorset Roeshot site is 74 hectares and will generate up to 160 lorry movements a day.

The Hampshire site is even bigger at 85 hectares. Most of the sand and gravel extracted will be heading west to Bournemouth and Poole.

Grange ward councillor Denise Jones told the community services committee it would be “a disaster for Christchurch as a whole”.

Four million tonnes of aggregate are expected to be dug from the Hampshire pit and 3.5 million tonnes in 15 years from the Dorset site, she said.

The bypass already becomes gridlocked and an extra lorry every three minutes would exacerbate the situation.

“People on the train will think they are coming to the moon with a landscape that will look very similar,” she claimed.

She was also concerned about dust and noise at Somerford and potential pollution of the River Mude, which empties into Christchurch Harbour.

Committee chairman Cllr Sally Derham Wilkes agreed there would be a “lunar landscape” at Roeshot.

Council leader Cllr Alan Griffiths said: “It’s going to be an absolute disaster for the tourism industry.

“We are going to be ringed in the borough by gravel pits.”