Going once...mountain of rubble auctioned at Sotheby's by Calderdale Council

Dec 5 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

YOU won’t find it on the list of lots at Sotheby’s.

But this mountain of rubble is up for auction, available to the highest bidder.

Calderdale Council is accepting sealed bids for 5,400 tonnes of planings recovered from roads during resurfacing works.

David Newton, group engineer for the council, said: “Whoever puts the highest bid in gets it.”

The huge pile of chippings – measuring about 20m by 30m and 10m high and being stored at Calderdale Council’s highways depot on Huddersfield Road in Elland – is made up of remnants of roads that have been improved over the year.

Mr Newton said: “While the material is starting to fail as a road surface, it’s still a good material for certain uses.

“We, as a council, might recycle it if we are looking to reconstruct footpaths and we can roll it into a foundation for pavements.

“The alternative is to buy new stone from quarries, depleting the stocks of natural materials.

“Like all local authorities we have a moral responsibility to maintain natural stocks and if there’s some way of not digging it out of the earth then we have to take that option.”