Quarrying
The Edge has been, and is, intensively quarried for galena, fluorspar and barytes, and more controversially, limestone. Since Longstone Edge is a noted beauty spot and is located within the Peak District National Park there is strong local pressure for the quarrying to stop altogether. Some of this quarrying is strictly controlled by the Peak District National Park Authority, but the Authority conducted a lengthy legal battle to try to stop other quarries (at Backdale and Wager's Flat) which were operating outside of the authority's guidelines.
In February 2008 the High Court ruled in favour of landowner Bleaklow Industries Ltd, and quarrying at Backdale quarry resumed. The Peak District National Park Authority won permission to appeal against that High Court decision. In the meantime, a consortium of pressure groups campaigned to have the Government buy out the old mineral mining permissions from the landowner.
On 10/11 February 2009, the previous High Court ruling in favour of the Landowner and Operator of Backdale Quarry was overturned by three appeal judges, and although it still allowed the quarrying to continue, the ruling ensured that the original 1952 permission would be interpreted correctly, with the emphasis on fluorspar rather than limestone.
Bleaklow Industries requested leave to appeal, but this request was denied on 25 June 2009. The operator of Backdale Quarry, MMC Minerals (Midlands) Ltd, on 9 April 2009, was ordered by an HMRC tribunal to pay aggregate duty for the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of limestone it illegally removed from Longstone Edge. In July 2009, quarrying ceased at Backdale Quarry, and the machinery was removed. However, Bleaklow Industries still own land covered by 1952 permissions on Longstone Edge, and there will always be the threat that they could start the whole process over again at Wager's Flat and Peak Pasture, with equally damaging consequences. The quarrying later carried on as in years past.
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