Court Unanimously Rejects 'Back Door' Quarry Attempt
Published by MAC on 2004-01-09
Court Unanimously Rejects 'Back Door' Quarry Attempt
Call for company to drop plans for Britain's biggest quarry
9 January 2004
Scottish Environment LINK Press Release (FoE Scotland)
http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/press/pr20040102.html
Plans to develop what would be Britain's biggest ever quarry were set back today (Friday 9 January) following a unanimous decision by judges at the Edinburgh Court of Session to reject a "back door" appeal by French aggregates giant Lafarge. The company failed to overturn a previous Executive decision blocking the establishment of a massive 600 hectare superquarry within a National Scenic Area on Harris.
The superquarry controversy may not end here. Following an earlier appeal by Lafarge, a redetermination on a separate planning application dating from 1991 has yet to be issued.
The Link Quarry Group, a coalition of environment groups opposed to the quarry, welcomed today's decision and demanded that that Lafarge Aggregates finally drop its quarry plans and withdraw from all attempts to gain approval for its plan. The Group also reiterated its demand that the bosses of Lafarge visit Harris to apologise for the decade of uncertainty that they have created for the community.
On behalf of the Link Quarry Group, Duncan McLaren said:
"When will Lafarge accept that 'non' means 'non'? They have been told repeatedly by the Scottish authorities and people that their 'super-quarry' proposals are unacceptable. Yet they have persisted in pursuing every arcane planning and legal possibility. Now the Scottish law lords have confirmed that only a tiny part of the site has a valid existing permission. It's time for Lafarge to withdraw gracefully before they are rebuffed yet again.
"Lafarge's bosses claim that they support sustainable development. They should accept that the only sustainable decision in this case is to drop the entire proposal, and then apologise to the people of Harris for the uncertainty and disruption they have caused."