APPENDIX 1
Memorandum submitted by Mr Rodney Conner,
Chief Executive, Fermanagh District Council
Fermanagh District Council is most concerned
about the devastating impact that the introduction of the Aggregates
Tax in Northern Ireland will have on both jobs and the environment
in our border County of Fermanagh. Fermanagh has suffered severe
job losses in the past two years and we have no doubt that with
the implementation of this Aggregates Tax, employment in our County
will be even further reduced, particularly along the Border area.
Quarry aggregates and, indeed products based on quarry aggregates,
will be purchased from across the Border as these can be imported
from the South of Ireland, tax free, impacting on both the retail
trade and quarrying itself.
The Aggregates Tax has been introduced to encourage
the use of the recycling of materials in construction products.
In Fermanagh we do not have the vast urban regeneration that they
have in England. We have excellent resources of good quality aggregate
unlike England where they have very little apart from river gravels
and china clays. We do not have the huge stockpiles of waste materials
from steelworks or power stations which, again, they have in England.
The imposition of the tax will, in effect, mean
a substantial increase in lorry movements across the Border with
a significant detrimental effect on our environment through increased
emission of CO2 into the atmosphere and further damage to our
roads infrastructure.
18 October 2001
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