Quarrying operations to extract 6.3 million tonnes of sand and gravel over 10 years on farmland near Burton have been unveiled - with a pledge local residents will not be affected.

Construction and minerals giant Hanson Aggregates has submitted an application to Staffordshire County Council's planners for an extension to its current sand and gravel quarry at Barton under Needwood.

The quarry, to the east of the village off Walton Lane, employs 15 people directly and a further 25 in support services, supplying essential materials for local building projects. Most of the material goes into the manufacture of ready-mixed and precast concrete.

The proposed 60 hectare extension area is west of the current quarry - which opened in 1972 - on agricultural land between the A38 and the railway line. It contains around 6.3 million tonnes of sand and gravel, which would be extracted over a 10-year period.

Brian Shaw, Hanson's land and planning manager, said the company had included a full environmental impact assessment with the application and did not expect the extension to affect residents living nearby.

He said: "We will be consulting with our neighbours over the coming weeks to explain the proposal."

Bosses said that the proposed extension area would be worked in a similar way to the existing quarry. Soils and overburden will be removed before the sand and gravel is extracted by an excavator and transported by dump truck to a field conveyor, which will take the raw material across the railway and feed it into the existing processing plant.

The processing plant, stockyard, weighbridge and offices will all remain in use and access to the site will continue to be via the 1.5 kilometre internal road off Walton Lane. There are no changes proposed to the quarry's output or working hours.

When quarrying is finished, bosses have promised that the area will be restored to create landscaped water features with shallow margins, islands, ponds and tributary streams, bringing both biodiversity and flood storage benefits.

Hanson, which is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, is the UK's leading supplier of heavy building materials to the construction industry, employing 3,500 people across the country and producing aggregates such as crushed rock, sand and gravel, ready-mixed concrete, asphalt, cement and cement-related materials.