Chowns: Lugg Bridge HQ Tour ‘fascinating’

North Herefordshire MP visits washplant

HEREFORD QUARRIES hosted North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns on Friday, March 21, for a tour of the Lugg Bridge washplant that she found both “interesting” and “fascinating”.

Under the guidance of Quarries’ Commercial Manager Llewellyn Layton and Group Quality Manager Gavin Pettigrew, she wasted little time in scaling the heights of the CDE washplant, the beating heart of the quarry operations, which can process between 560 to 1100 tonnes of recycled or quarried raw materials per day.

The tour, scheduled to last around 30 minutes, took an hour and a half, as Ms. Chowns was determined to find out how the recovery of quality aggregate puts Hereford Quarries at the forefront of the circular economy and why the company is rightly proud of attaining a 99% recycling rate with construction and demolition waste.

Ms. Chowns said: “I love a ‘factory tour’ – it’s always so interesting to see how things work behind the scenes – and this was no exception. 

“The site processes both new and recycled material, and it was fascinating to see how they wash and sort it – and how so much, including the water, is recycled.”

Wye Valley Group & Hereford Quarries Managing Director Andrew Howell also spent valuable time with Ms. Chowns, who is only the fifth Green Party MP to serve in the UK Parliament.

He added: “With a quarry at Wellington – similar to that at Upper Lyde – given the green light last year, we were pleased to host our local MP and share our future investment and employment plans.

“It was pleasing that we were able to outline the value Hereford Quarries and the Wye Valley Group as a whole are bringing to the local community and the wider economy. She spent significant time with us on a busy schedule, and we are grateful for the opportunity.”