A CALL has been made for a full Government inquiry as the controversy over proposed quarrying around ancient monuments near Bedale takes a fresh turn.

Plans by Tarmac Northern to extend sand and gravel workings into an area containing the historic Thornborough henges, near West Tanfield, will be highlighted nationally for the first time on Tuesday in a television programme in which an archaeologist expresses his shock at the extent of quarrying which has already taken place.

North Yorkshire County Council is criticised in Time Flyers on BBC2 at 7.30pm, in which Dr Mark Horton, of Bristol University, uses a helicopter to view features variously known as the Stonehenge of the North and the St Paul's Cathedral of the Neolithic age.

In a separate development, the chairman of the Hambleton district branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has said that so much confusion now surrounds the issue that a public inquiry led by an independent figure is needed.

David Clarke has told Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh, whose constituency includes Thornborough, that there are so many interested parties arguing about the future that it is difficult to reach a consensus view.

Local people warned almost a year ago that they would spearhead a national campaign to preserve the landscape around the three earthwork henges after Tarmac Northern announced plans to secure the future of nearby Nosterfield quarry, and the jobs it has brought to the area, by extending workings in two phases over 15 to 20 years.

Nosterfield produces about a quarter of North Yorkshire's supply of high quality sand and gravel, with 550,000 tonnes a year being extracted, but Tarmac Northern has estimated that at current production rates reserves there will be exhausted in about three years.

In November last year local people expressed immediate concern about proposals to extract from Thornborough Moor, where the history of the henges was explored in great detail by Dr Jan Harding, of Newcastle University.

The henges, which are older than Stonehenge, were used for ceremonial purposes by people from all over the north for more than 1,500 years and are linked with the Devil's Arrows at Boroughbridge.

During the making of next week's Time Flyers, Dr Horton expressed his shock at proposals for more quarrying in the surrounding area which, he said, would leave the henges on an island surrounded by open gravel pits.

He said he was doubly shocked at the extent to which quarrying had already removed substantial parts of the surrounding area, destroying a vast amount of related archaeology.

Dr Horton added: "That such landscape destruction could even be considered around Stonehenge, or even our lesser known sites in the south, is unthinkable.

"With the new scheme to tunnel the A303 under the Stonehenge landscape, the Government has recognised that a largely unscheduled landscape has to be preserved in situ at a cost to the nation of around £100m.

"Yet at Thornborough it is OK seriously to consider the total loss of a prehistoric landscape, arguably as important, for simple economic gain."

No formal planning application has yet been lodged but Friends of Thornborough, set up to oppose further quarrying, has organised a petition both online and door-to-door.

Group spokesman Jon Lowry said: "More than 2,000 people from all over the world have signed. There is massive support within the villages surrounding Thornborough, where 98pc of all households have signed."

He said of the Time Flyers programme: "The whole of Britain needs to see just important these henges are.

"We have distributed more than 20,000 leaflets telling people about the show and urging them to sign our petition. This is Yorkshire's most important ancient monument. We cannot let this continue."

Friends of Thornborough holds a public talk on Thursday (7.30pm) at West Tanfield Methodist Hall and more information on the henges is available by logging on to www.friendsofthornborough.org.

David Clarke said he had sent a letter from the Hambleton branch of the CPRE, pressing for an inquiry, to Anne McIntosh, who had passed it to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. The inquiry should investigate not only the latest proposal but help towards a framework for the district.

Mr Clarke said the CPRE understood that some quarrying was inevitable but felt the present "anarchic" situation was unacceptable.

An independent inquiry could inhibit development in some areas, allow it in others and produce a framework for the long term protection of the environment around a site which, according to English Heritage, was as important as Stonehenge.

Ms McIntosh said: "We have Neolithic henges of local, regional and national importance which need to be protected.

"I have met with interested parties and am waiting for a planning application to be made before I can formally act. I have written to the Culture Secretary to impress upon her what a national treasure we have."

County council archaeologist Neil Campling defended previous studies in the area, insisting that all discoveries had been properly recorded.

He claimed the Thornborough campaign group was exaggerating its case and said that if a formal planning application was made a full review of the environmental impact of the proposals would be conducted.

A Tarmac Northern spokeswoman said: "The henges site is an important site of archaeological interest and we believe that in Tarmac's care it is in safe hands.

"There are no plans to destroy the henges and we would restore the site in consultation with archaeological experts and provide a visitor centre.