by Anne Hayes - Hills Group

High standards ofhousekeeping aremaintainedon gravel sitesHills Aggregates, one of the largest regional suppliers ofsand and gravel to the construction industry, runs sevenquarries on six sites: Shorncote; Latton (a joint venturewith Aggregate Industries); Stourport, Worcestershire;Tubney Woods, near Oxford; Bowling Green Farm,Faringdon; and Compton Bassett, near Calne. In addition,large aggregate reserves are held by the company, mainly inthe Cotswold Water Park.Quality propertiesbuilt by CountyHomesThe group’s second major sphere of operation is wastemanagement. It runs a comprehensive waste and recyclingbusiness covering a wide swathe from Chippenham toNewbury and Salisbury. In 1996, the company’s carefulapproach to waste disposal and land restoration wasrewarded by a 20-year contract, worth £55 million, tohandle the disposal and recycling of waste from mostof Wiltshire.Managing directorAlan Pardoe meets theWiltshire Waste Warrior,figurehead of the company’srecycling initiativeA major feature of the contact is Hills commitment torecycling and reclamation. By the end of the fifth year ofthe contract, 2001, the group has to have found ways ofdealing with 25 per cent of waste by means other thanlandfill. To achieve this a major recycling facility wasconstructed at Compton Bassett,opened in 1998 by MEPCaroline Jackson.A typical landfilloperation21