Hanson axes quarry jobs as Aggregates Levy bites

Hanson has blamed the Aggregates Levy for its decision to axe 25% of the workforce at a north Wales quarry.

The 10 redundancies at its Penmaenmawr quarry near Conwy were announced last month as a cost-cutting measure.

"It is unfortunate, but the facts make stark reading - we are not selling enough of the products we make," said quarry manager Bryn Waldron. "The quarry has seen a reduction in overall sales of almost 20% from 2001."

Hanson has attributed the fall in sales to the introduction of the Aggregates Levy in April 2002.

Many of Penmaenmawr's products are essentially by-products of the prime extraction process, but they still incur the £1.60 a tonne levy.

These products have been unable to compete with locally produced slate waste - sold as aggregate but exempt from the levy - and sales have fallen by 60% over the past year.

Mike Ogden, managing director of Hanson Aggregates UK, said Hanson has been lobbying the Welsh Assembly for the exemption on slate waste to be lifted, to create "a level playing field".

"The problem is that when the parameters were drawn up for the Aggregates Levy, non-traditional construction materials, like slate and china clay, slipped through the net," he said.

Ogden added that the Assembly's response had been "positive".

Hanson's cause has been taken up by local Labour MP Betty Williams and Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Gareth Jones.

Jones said he had "repeatedly raised the concerns of [Penmaenmawr's] management with the government of Wales".

"The effects on quarry jobs of the Aggregates Levy were entirely predictable and sadly have now come true," he added."This was a badly thought-out tax that does little to protect the environment and jobs are under threat as a result."

n Interview with Mike Ogden, p16-17.