Cemex has announced it is shelving plans for expansion - leaving villagers and campaigners celebrating. Cemex UK Operations, which owns Barrington Quarry, is suspending an application to build the new plant - which would have included a huge preheater tower that could be seen for miles - at the site between Royston and Cambridge.

Cemex said the move was due to uncertainty over the future of carbon dioxide (CO2) strategy in the UK. Initial proposals for the expansion, including the construction of a 132m preheater tower, were heavily criticised by concerned residents. Cemex was forced to go back to the drawing board and revealed earlier this month it had postponed submitting its application. On Monday, 13 March the company said the application had been suspended.

A spokeswoman said: "Following the completion of a feasibility study, the company has suspended an application for planning permission for a new cement plant at Barrington. Instead, it said it planned to install a new coastal milling plant

Rupert Dick, from environmental group Camair, which had been fighting the proposals, said: "This is brilliant news as far as we are concerned.

"It is great news from a pollution point of view for the people of South Cambridgeshire because, in the short term, they won’t be trying to build a huge beast on the hill, as we call it. "But it will be interesting to see what plans they have now for Barrington."