The site is adjacent to the Ribble NNR and the RSPB’s Marshside Marsh Reserve, and has been subject to extensive habitat creation including saline/brackish lagoons – a priority habitat under the UK BAP.

The site provides a particularly good example of successful local partnerships. The company helped to build a new bird hide on the RSPB reserve which overlooks freshwater lagoons on the quarry site. The site already attracts a great deal of public interest.

William Rainford carried out extensive monitoring of the saline/brackish lagoons and bird interest in support of an Environmental Statement for an extension to their planning permission. This included close liaison with English Nature and funding of a sedimentation study of the Ribble Estuary (SSSI, SPA/Ramsar site) – the largest such study ever carried out here.