Safeguards wanted over quarry plan
Firm want to expand their facility
Operators hoping to extend works at a Callander quarry will be asked to ensure there are safeguards for potential wildlife, noise and flooding issues.
Cemex, who operate Cambusmore Quarry, want to extend mineral extraction and retain their plant site for another four years.
The quarry is around 350 metres south east of Callander and accessed from a road off the A84.
The site is split into two areas - one within Stirling Council’s remit and the other the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, with both joined by the quarry access road.
The company wants to extend extraction within the council part, which will eventually require an application for full planning permission.
They also want to extend the siting and operation of the processing plant site - which sits in the national park area - for the duration of the extended work.
Once extraction operations are completed, Cemex then hope to extract the minerals underlying the processing plant, with permission sought to extend the timescale for quarrying activities until December 31, 2027.
Stirling Council planners said: “This would equate to a four year time extension to the siting of the processing plant. This would require a Section 42 planning application to the Park Authority to vary conditions attached to the existing planning permission extend the timescale for the operation of the plant site and the final removal of a small quantity of mineral below the plant site.”
Cemex has asked Stirling Council for an opinion on its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping meantime. The process enables the council and other bodies, including various specified national agencies, to assess whether the company is considering all the necessary and appropriate environmental issues which would potentially be raised by the proposal.
An EIA scoping report drawn up in August this year for the site covered issues such as planning policy, geology and hydrology, ecology, water environment, noise, dust, archaeology and cultural heritage, traffic and transport, population and human health, and cumulative impact.
In a report issued this week, council planners said the scoping report identified relevant key issues associated with the proposal.
They added: “The part of the site within the National Park may have implications for the Stirling planning authority area, for example operational noise and movements.
“On a recent visit to view a site in the vicinity of Easter Torrie Farm, around one kilometre south east, noise from truck movements and the operation of plant and machinery, if not particularly loud, was very noticeable.”
The planners suggested noise measurements be taken from properties which may be a similar distance from the works.
The River Teith Special Area of Conservation, which includes the Keltie Water tributary was also highlighted.
The planners said: “Stirling Council and the National Park Authority will, with the support of Scottish Natural Heritage, have to carry out an ‘appropriate assessment’ to ensure the integrity of the site will not be adversely affected by the proposal. The ecological study should therefore include sufficient information to allow this assessment to be carried out.”
Work to protect species such as bats, otters, red squirrel and pine marten which could potentially be on the site should also be carried out, they added, and a flood risk assessment would be needed.