WORKERS say they could lose their jobs over a "bucketful of pottery, flints and fragments" if a quarry extension is rejected.

English Heritage says the site of the extension, at Nosterfield Quarry, near Masham, North Yorkshire, is of national importance to archaeologists.

But staff employed by Tarmac Northern said yesterday that the archaeology found during a recent survey was not worth their jobs.

Speaking on behalf of the 55 quarry staff and contractors, quarry worker Paul Ingram said: "The proposed site is modern farmland, not a Neolithic village and the archaeologists have found only a small quantity of remnants of pottery and flint, the like of which could be found in many fields in Britain.

"Yet English Heritage insists on recommending that the quarry be refused.

"Supplies at the present quarry are running out and Tarmac has applied to extract sand and gravel over four years at the adjoining Ladybridge Farm.

"We calculate the financial loss of closure for quarry workers and hauliers will be £1.3m a year. The public will lose £900,000 a year in aggregates levy tax and rates and the cost to the council and English Heritage of contesting a legal battle could be a further £500,000.

"What makes a bucket of crumbs worth £10m and the loss of 50 jobs?"

The site of the proposed extension is near the 5,000-year-old Neolithic earthworks, known as Thornborough Henges.

Quarry manager Alan Coe said: "We are aware that when colleagues at a quarry in Northumberland recently found Neolithic remains, English Heritage permitted their removal for archaeological examination and the quarry continued in operation.

"We are concerned that different rules are apparently to be applied in Yorkshire."

Nobody from English Heritage was available for comment yesterday.

But in response to the archaeological study conducted last year, Neil Redfern, of English Heritage, said: "The evaluations have defined an area containing a nationally- important prehistoric landscape displaying complex spatial components and relationships.

"The minerals planning proposal from Tarmac Northern will have a clear and negative impact on nationally- important archaeology."

Officers' recommendations on the quarry extension are expected next week.

County councillors will vote on the application on February 21.