A QUARRY company has confirmed that it is to challenge the rejection of controversial plans to extract sand and gravel from land close to a 5,000-year-old monument site in North Yorkshire.

Tarmac Northern employs 15 full-time workers at Nosterfield quarry, between Bedale and Ripon, where supplies are expected to be exhausted within the next two years. The quarry produces almost 25pc of the supply of sand and gravel in the county.

In a bid to safeguard local jobs and the supply of material to the building industry, Tarmac sought planning consent to extract 2.2m tonnes over four years from 112 acres at nearby Ladybridge Farm, half a mile from the nearest of three Neolithic earthwork henges outside the village of Thornborough.

The henges, said by experts to have been an important meeting place for ancient people from a wide catchment area, have been described as the Stonehenge of the North. Their historical significance was first explained in a research project conducted by Dr Jan Harding, of Newcastle University.

The site represents a scheduled ancient monument with legal protection, but campaigners who bombarded North Yorkshire County Council with protests insisted that its immediate surroundings, including Ladybridge, must be saved from the effects of more quarrying.

The Ladybridge application provoked more than 1,000 letters of objection and a petition signed by 9,680 people. The county council received 80 letters of support, including some from quarry workers and associated haulage firms.

In February the application was rejected by six votes to three by the county council planning committee, which faced a difference of opinion between archaelogists commissioned by Tarmac and specialists at English Heritage about the value of archaeological remains found at Ladybridge.

Tarmac, which warned that the decision could lead to job losses, confirmed yesterday that it will appeal and will seek a public inquiry, but a spokesman indicated that this was still not the end of the story.

Bob Nicholson, Tarmac estates manager for the area, said: ''We are anxious to safeguard employment and maintain supply from the quarry to the construction industry. We have followed the due process of formally lodging an appeal, as we stated following the planning decision of February 21.

''However, we are also discussing the possibility of a revised application for a smaller extraction area at Ladybridge, avoiding the areas which were the subject of archaeological concern.

''Nosterfield is recognised as being a well run quarry, close to the A1 for transport purposes, with a good record of co-operating with the community and with the various archaelogical, environmental and wildlife protection agencies. We hope to achieve a fair balance taking account of all interests including continuity of employment and supply of construction materials.'' Alwyn Shaw, head of minerals at the county council, said: ''We have received a courtesy statement from Tarmac of the intention to appeal. We are awaiting confirmation from the planning inspectorate that it is a valid appeal, together with a start date, after which we will begin publicity and other statutory procedures.'' He said no revised planning application had yet been received.

The local branch of the TimeWatch organisation was among the objectors to the Ladybridge application and chairman George Chaplin said yesterday: ''Technically the current Nosterfield quarry should not be there at all. It is destroying national heritage, as would the extension at Ladybridge. The site is not mentioned in the local minerals plan but Tarmac is quite happy to do so at the cost of some of the most important heritage in Britain.''