Victory for Braco quarry protesters

Jul 4 2008 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

CONCERNS about road safety, damage to a sensitive environment and adverse effects on the residents of the south Perthshire village of Braco led councillors to refuse a quarry extension planning application, against the recommendation for approval from Perth and Kinross Council’s senior planning officer.

An application by Falkirk-based quarrying company McCaig’s to extend sand and gravel workings at Braco Castle Farm attracted 116 letters of objections. Main concerns were noise, visual amenity and biodiversity impacts, road safety, pollution of watercourses and the effect the work would have on wildlife and trees.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds pointed out there is an active colony of sand martins, which are fully protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, within the application site.

Addressing councillors of the development control committee, Alan Pollock, an agent for the applicant, described the quarry extension as being on a “very, very modest scale” with a working life of 18 months followed by 18 months to restore the land. It would not, he said, establish any form of precedent for a larger application.

"This is an excellent, well thought-out development,” he told the committee.

He suggested that “the large number of objections have been orchestrated by a small number of residents, and are factually incorrect or totally unfounded.”

The majority of the committee, however, heeded the concerns expressed by the objectors, among whom was the local community council chairman Steve Forsyth.

He described how the quarry workings would be just 50 metres from the nearest house in Braco and access would be taken four metres from a woman’s home.

He said the local community had raised £14,000 to pay for legal fees to fight the application, and how a habitat report submitted by the applicants had not included the presence of the sand martin colony.

Strathallan councillor John Law was worried this could be the first of many applications and he called for the committee to reject the application for three clear reasons: that the applicant could not achieve safe exit from the site; the irreversible loss to the landscape and sites of antiquities which are of national importance; and the loss of amenity for residents and visitors to the area.

A motion by Councillor Robert Band, seconded by Councillor Helen McDonald, to refuse the application got seven votes, against a call to approve from Councillor Liz Grant seconded by committee convener Ken Lyall.