Campaigners have welcomed a four-week extension to a controversial consultation on where quarries and waste sites could go across Norfolk until 2021. Norfolk County Council yesterday announced the deadline for people to comment on proposals for landfill sites and quarries will now be April 25, instead of tomorrow.

Campaigners have welcomed a four-week extension to a controversial consultation on where quarries and waste sites could go across Norfolk until 2021.

Norfolk County Council has announced the deadline for people to comment on proposals for landfill sites and quarries will now be April 25, instead of last Saturday.

Protest groups have sprung up across the county to fight a number of the more than 100 gravel extraction and 64 landfill proposals, about a third of which are in Breckland.

Criticism had been levelled at the council for not giving people long enough to learn about schemes and have their say.

John Kitson, chairman of Wretham Parish Council, which has objected to schemes in the area, welcomed the extension and said it would enable more individuals to comment and that it was individuals' comments that would wield the most weight.

Only this week new protest groups are being set up, including at Bridgham, where a meeting was due to take place on Thursday in the village hall, and East Winch.

The county council has to plan to provide enough sand, gravel and carrstone for building projects up to 2021 and landfill sites for waste for the same period.

It has also been consulting on a broad strategy on where the sites should be, such as near to growth areas, but this consultation is still scheduled to end tomorrow.

An internet site on the consultation has had more than 45,000 hits, according to the council.

People can comment by going to the council's website, www.norfolk.gov.uk/nmwdf, or county council libraries, e-mail ldf@norfolk.gov.uk, or by returning a response form, or by writing to Planning Services, Norfolk County Council, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich NR1 2SG.