A VILLAGE is in danger of becoming an island surrounded by gravel pits, it was claimed today.

Anne Harding fears for the future of Crossways after two stone firms revealed plans to start extracting later this year.

Woodsford Farm hopes to dig up minerals from a 150-hectare site north of Crossways during the next 20 to 25 years. Now Aggregate Industries intends to extract sand and gravel from land at Egdon House in Crossways, using planning permission obtained in 1961.

Resident Mrs Harding, who lives in nearby Frome Valley Road, fears village life will suffer under the new proposals. She hopes local people will come together in a bid to halt the mineral extraction schemes.

Mrs Harding, who moved to Crossways from Staffordshire three years ago, said she was concerned extra traffic will be created by the schemes.

She said: "I feel that the whole of the Crossways area is being exploited for financial gain and the residents are not being considered. There will also be noise and dust generated from these sites and our views will be compromised, having an adverse effect on our quality of life and possibly the house prices in the area."

Mrs Harding said the first she knew of the Aggregate Industries proposal for Egdon House was when she received a letter from the firm.

"We must not be apathetic over this matter as Crossways is going to become a village on an island surrounded by gravel works," she said.

"We must do all we can to try and get these proposals halted."

Aggregate Industries' senior estates surveyor Robert Westell said the firm plans to soil strip its field at Egdon House later this year, having exhausted its Bestwall Quarry site, near Wareham.

He said planning permission to extract sand and gravel from the area was granted by Dorset County Council in January 1961.

"The first step will be to remove the soils, stockpiling them in screening bunds around Egdon House, the nursery and possibly along the eastern boundary, depending on the volume available.

"The second step is to extract the gravels which are present on the surface of the deposit. We anticipate that it will take one year for us to do this."

Crossways Parish Council chairman Bob Russell said the council was happy with the amount of landscaping in the planned Woodsford Farm scheme.

He added that the Egdon House proposal would be considered when more details were available.