SEPA JOINS BATTLE

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) hopes to block Paterson's Quarries' planning application to extract five million tonnes of sand and gravel from a site at Overburns Farm in Lamington over the next decade.
A SEPA spokeswoman lent her support to campaigners in a local action group, who are angry at an outsider trying to commercially exploit a beautiful environmental area.
The spokeswoman said: "The environmental statement received as part of the application does not address all significant environmental issues at this site.
"There are still uncertainties regarding the potential impacts of the proposed quarry on the water environment, in particular the River Clyde. Our main concerns focus on the potential adverse impact of the proposed quarry on the morphology of the River Clyde and the river morphological processes on the quarry in the future.
"Based on the information currently available to us, we object to this planning application on the grounds of lack of information. We will revisit our position once that additional information is submitted."

Burning issue...at Overburns Farm

Aileen Campbell, SNP MSP for South of Scotland, has spoken out against the proposals in Parliament, during a debate on rural housing.
She said: "I was interested to read that the committee believes that there is something of an inherent conservatism, and often a presumption against development on the part of rural planning authorities.
"That might come as a surprise to residents of Douglas, who face the development of a new opencast quarry in their area, and to the residents of Biggar, Lamington and the surrounding area, who are trying to stop plans for a sand and gravel quarry at Overburns Farm on the banks of the Clyde.
"There is scepticism about the number of jobs that such developments will generate, and there is genuine concern about the impact not just on the environment and the landscape, but on health, the roads and other infrastructure in the area.
"If too many such developments put people off the idea of moving to the countryside, or make rural areas less attractive places to live, then all the good work that is being done to improve housing supply will come to very little."
Aileen recently sent a copy of a local residents' survey showing massive opposition to the plans to Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham and Infrastructure Minister Stewart Stevenson.
The MSP said that recent developments especially the objection by SEPA should give local residents hope that South Lanarkshire Council would see sense when it came to making a decision on the Overburns application.
Aileen said: "SEPA are clearly not impressed by the information provided by Paterson's about the environmental impact of the proposal.
"It would be wise of South Lanarkshire Council to listen to the objections raised in my survey and in the huge number of individual objections it has received.
"The Council ran roughshod over local opinion in granting permission to the Mainshill development.
"It must not be allowed to get away with that again at Overburns."

By Craig Goldthorp
Carluke & Lanark Gazette
22/10/09