CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after plans to create new quarries in several north Essex villages have been shelved.

Essex County Council’s final draft policy for quarrying in the county - due to be signed by a government minister in the summer of 2013 - has been published, detailing which sites are preferred.

Extensions to quarries in Stanway, Ardleigh, Alresford, Birch and Rivenhall are preferred as well as a new site in Witham.

But early proposals for new quarries in Ardleigh, Alresford, Fingringhoe and Frating which were preferred by council officers have now been scrapped.