A DECISION on whether to allow a new quarry to open near Hightae has been postponed until after a site visit is carried out.
Councillors yesterday agreed to go to Cocket Hill to see the 5.6 hectare location for themselves.
It came after they heard from many local residents who were objecting to the proposal, which has been put forward by RD Nairn Construction.
The individuals addressed the planning committee in Dumfries, raising a range of concerns about noise levels, light pollution, flood risk, traffic safety and environmental impact.
And many spoke out especially about health fears and the impact that the dust and particule matter from quarrying could have on their conditions, which ranged from asthma and cystic fibrosis, to ME, fibromyalgia and epilepsy.
Resident Clark Duncan said: “Why should you gamble with people’s health? The economic argument for this quarry is weak compared to the long term health costs.
“Every resident of Hightae deserves to breath clean air.”
Nicola Free added: “This proposed quarry is truly detrimental to the health of myself and my loved ones.
“It will hugely degrade our quality of life.”
Meanwhile, objector Murray Gibson added: “Simply put, it’s not needed.”
The applicant also had the chance to put his case across and Mr Nairn stressed that he’s a local employer with 90 staff and that the quarry would create more work.
He said: “We really need this quarry as a control measure to help us win work and control supply We have found we really struggle with supply. We need a rock quarry ideally to help with the business.”
Mr Nairn gave assurances his firm would be the sole customer and, as such, lorry movements would be limited to a maximum ten a day.
Responding to a question from Cllr Ivor Hyslop about why that particular location was selected, he said: “We picked it knowing industrial work was already going on there, so access should be acceptable as there’s a lorry route already there. We have said we will improve the road and put passing places in.
“We thought where it is is not going to affect anybody.
“It’s not going to be the massive scale of other quarries.”
As for suppressing potential dust and matter, the applicant told Cllr Tony Berretti that a method statement was in place, which included plans to have dust suppression on machinery, a bund round the quarry and the use of water.
“I am a contractor that works on major house building sites, on quarries. Anything we need to put in place will be followed, we will do it correctly,” Mr Nairn added.
Following the statements, Cllr Ian Carruthers suggested the site visit, saying: “We have heard a lot of what’s coming across as legitimate objections/concerns and we also heard from the applicant.
“There’s so many concerns I would have to reflect.”
Agreeing, Cllr Berretti said: “The complexities of this application merits that we see this.”
And Annandale North member Stephen Thompson said: “In order to really understand this, we probably do need to see the site and understand its location and the reality of roads round about that, as well as many other things.”
