Image relating to Helping quarry consultation message hit Holme

Helping quarry consultation message hit Holme

The Breedon Group is one of the UK’s leading construction materials suppliers, producing cement, aggregates, asphalt and ready-mixed concrete for use in a wide range of industries.

Its Holme Hall Quarry, in South Yorkshire, has been a part of its community since the 1930s. It employs around 35 people and produces more than 2.4 million tonnes of limestone products each year. These products have helped to support many local infrastructure projects, including the Doncaster iPort, Yorkshire Wildlife Park and the Hatfield Link Road.

Earlier this year, Breedon carried out a public consultation on its plans for a northern extension to the quarry, which would secure an additional 19 million tonnes of limestone reserves. This would extend the service life of the quarry by up to 10 years, which would secure the jobs of those already employed at the site, as well as supporting many more jobs indirectly through the quarry’s supply chain.

 

A COVID-safe consultation

As part of the consultation process, Breedon wanted to arrange a virtual display of the proposals, to give members of the local community the opportunity to find out more information and communicate their views on the development, prior to the submission of the formal planning application. Given that Government lockdown restrictions were in place due to COVID-19, a physical public consultation event was not possible.

So, it tasked Quiet Storm with creating a 360° virtual tour of the exhibition to allow people to view the proposals online.  It wanted to provide:

    •    Downloadable and printable versions of the presentation boards
    •    A summary guide to the development
    •    A virtual presentation of the boards
    •    A feedback questionnaire allowing people to submit views on the development directly to Breedon.

We helped to design and produce a set of printed exhibition boards for the events, which displayed key information about the proposals, their benefits and their potential impact on the local area, We also spent a day at the site of the exhibition filming the room using specialist 360° photography equipment, so we could create the virtual display. It enabled people to view the room and each of the exhibition panels online, as if they were there in person.   

And we created dedicated additional pages on Breedon’s main website to host the virtual exhibition tour, along with other information about the consultation and the proposals. The site enables residents to find out more, as well as download a PDF of the exhibition boards, containing all the relevant information.  

 

Reaching a wider audience

April Kusznir, Breedon’s Communications and Marketing Manager, said:

“Holme Hall Quarry has played an important role in the heart of its local community for almost 90 years. It provides jobs for local people and we even have team members who have racked up 40 years’ service at the quarry. At Breedon, we take our responsibilities as a business extremely seriously. We have a long history of engaging with residents to build positive relationships and a greater understanding about what we do.

“While we weren’t able to engage in person with the local community because of COVID-19, a virtual consultation enabled us to deliver our message online. Although we could not fully replicate the benefits of holding a public consultation event, the solution Quiet Storm created enabled us to provide the community with opportunities to discuss the proposals with us and submit feedback.”


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