A CAMPAIGN group fighting proposals to quarry land near a prehistoric monument yesterday handed over a 10,000-signature petition.

Members of Timewatch were at County Hall, in Northallerton, to give the petition to North Yorkshire County Council.

The authority is about to consider an application by quarry operator Tarmac to extend Nosterfield Quarry, near to the 5,500-year-old Thornborough Henges.

Timewatch also handed more than 1,500 letters from people objecting to the application and a document responding to the proposals.

Group chairman George Chaplin said: "Our response shows that the application is fundamentally flawed and contrary to council planning policy on many counts.

"Tarmac wants to quarry in the wrong place, at a time when Yorkshire is over-producing gravel and with grave environmental impacts.

"This quarry will cause the permanent loss of nationally important archaeology and good-quality arable land.

"The case against Ladybridge quarry is simple and undeniable."

But Tarmac Limited estates manager Bob Nicholson said: "We think many people who have signed objection letters and petitions have received a mistaken impression.

"There is absolutely no plan to quarry the henges, they are scheduled protected monuments, and though the objectors' websites describe areas of Thornborough Moor adjacent to the henges as "proposed quarry" the planning application we have submitted is not for Thornborough Moor. Our application seeks to continue a long-established existing sand and gravel quarry operating under archaeological monitoring with an extension onto an area of agricultural land at Ladybridge more than half a mile away from the nearest henge."