CAMPAIGNERS against gravel extraction at Cholsey said they would fight on after county council leaders approved the minerals and waste plan for Oxfordshire.

The plan, agreed by cabinet yesterday, includes digging five million tonnes of gravel from fields between the village and Wallingford.

Some 1.2m tonnes a year could be dug in Oxfordshire, from the Lower Windrush Valley, Eynsham, Cassington, Yarnton, Sutton Courtenay and Caversham, with Cholsey replacing Sutton Courtenay from 2020 for 25 years.

Communities Against Gravel Extraction (Cage), which is raising a £20,000 fighting fund, will now prepare for a public inquiry scheduled for autumn. Cage member Bernard Stone, former mayor of Wallingford, said 99 per cent of local people opposed the plan and county councillor Lynda Atkins said it had ‘fatal flaws’.

The inspector will present his findings to the council by next spring and the plan, which runs until 2030, could be adopted by next summer.