About us & what we've achieved
As an environmental group, our mission is to protect what is the beautiful area of trees and mixed heathland that is Ringwood Forest – an important part of which is now threatened by the proposed Purple Haze quarry. We have worked tirelessly for decades to keep the forest as it is – which is why we have put so much effort into resisting the quarry development with our 'Say NO to Purple Haze' campaign.
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It has been a struggle, led by a dedicated few on a tiny budget, encouraged by thousands of supporters. Along with local councils and national environmental groups like Natural England and the Royal Society for Protection of Birds, we continue to fight Grundon's plan to extract million of tonnes of sand and gravel from this beautiful and peaceful place.
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In 2011, like-minded residents banded together to kick off the 'No to Purple Haze' local campaign group to stop Hampshire County Council (HCC) from including Purple Haze in their proposed Minerals & Waste Plan (M&WP) because it intended to extract millions of tons of soft sand and then operate a domestic waste landfill.
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Representing local communities, and visitors to Moors Valley Country Park alike, we spoke at Public Hearings & Council Meetings - earning praise from the Government Planning Inspector & HCC Senior Planning Officers for our own and our supporters’ contributions; held weekly public meetings in Verwood’s Club 31 premises; placed yellow ribbons along the B3081 to represent the site boundary. Ironically, those ribbons were removed by HCC who cited potential environmental harm prevention. We lobbied MPs and local celebrities, issued numerous press releases, lobbied Somerley Estate (the landowners), set up stalls at community events, picketed meetings/local events, etc., etc., etc.
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A surprise one-off donation enabled us to deliver by post to 30,000 BH post code addresses, information leaflets about Purple Haze with tear-off cards to return objections to HCC by Freepost; we also engaged a top London law firm for planning legal advice and an International quarry design company for quarry design, geological/hydrological and development feasibility guidance; Dorset mineral extraction sites were visited to learn about restoration.
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More than 4,100 supporters responded to the initial local campaign and said 'No' to HCC. Sadly, and despite everyone’s best efforts, HCC adopted Purple Haze as a soft sand quarry/landfill site in 2013. 'Friends of Ringwood Forest' (FoRF) was established to represent community concerns to Hampshire & Dorset Councils on any planning or waste/quarry site operational matters affecting the wider Ringwood Forest area. That practice continues today.
Everything went comparatively quiet until Somerley Estate appointed Grundon Sand & Gravel to be their operator for Purple Haze. After holding local Public Events themselves, in 2021 Grundon submitted to HCC their planning application for a quarry only – Purple Haze was no longer to be a domestic waste landfill site we were led to believe.
We responded to HCC by strongly objecting to the planning application alongside many other nationally & locally recognised organisations & groups, with the shared aim of preventing significant harm to an environmentally & ecologically valuable, and locally much cherished, landscape. The outcome was that Grundon’s application was found not to be fit for purpose and an extensively updated application was submitted.
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Jumping to 2024: HCC set up a Public Consultation to assess the views of the local population and other interested parties re. Purple Haze. We are proud of the part we, alongside fellow environmentalists and supporters, played in generating a huge response from the public, as well as from major national environmental and regulatory bodies.
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In early 2025, we put hundreds of hours into creating submissions to HCC when the Secretary of State appointed a Planning Inspector to examine the soundness of the Council's Mineral & Wastes Plan. Now, in mid 2025, we are extending our work in preparation for the second Public hearing called by the Planning Inspector.
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