I recently visited the Tarmac sand and gravel quarry at Kingsnorth which became fully operational last year and now serves customers across Kent and South East London.
I was pleased to meet Dwight and Peter who provided a thorough tour of the site and its work, as well as the local and national policy challenges it faces in the future.
The new quarry has an ideal location and sits in close proximity to the river Medway and transportation links to London. After much of our world famous cement industry left Medway some years ago, I find it exciting to welcome a new industry to take advantage of our local natural resources.
The sand and gravel from Kingsnorth will be used to produce concrete and construction materials and will be mainly supplied to local markets for construction projects. There is in excess of one million tonnes of sand and gravel at the quarry permitted to be extracted and geological studies have shown the aggregate to be of high quality.
Medway has a proud history of supporting construction across the South East and beyond, including providing huge amounts of cement for the reconstruction of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, and I am delighted to see this tradition will continue.
To ensure businesses such as Tarmac can succeed in harvesting these resources, it is important they have access to the best skills and logistics, which is why I continue to support local apprenticeships and skills and demand we have the local infrastructure in place.