Biggest superquarry proposed for Scottish island

This is only the latest round in a long battle between building materials company Lafarge Associates and Scottish conservationists. Planning consent for a smaller quarry on the island was first given back in 1968, and in 2001, the Western Isles Council approved an application to extract 600 million tons of road stone from the site over a 60-year period.

Photomontage of proposed superquarry development at Lingerbay, Isle of Harris
Copyright: Turnbull Jeffrey Partnership

The Scottish Executive rejected these proposals, saying that the benefits would not outweigh the environmental impact on the island. Lafarge Associates is appealing against this decision today in Edinburgh’s Court of Session. According to this article in The Scotsman, local opinion is divided on the fate of the island.

Friends of the Earth Scotland say that the quarry would leave a scar five times higher than the white cliffs of Dover, reducing Roineabhal mountain on south Harris to little more than a sea loch.

According to an article in the Sunday Herald WWF is so appalled at Lafarge’s intentions to steamroller the superquarry through the courts that it has returned its share of a £3.5 million corporate hand-out.

Duncan McLaren, chief exec of Friends of the Earth Scotland has condemned the plans in the strongest terms, saying “Lafarge’s plans to destroy the mountains of Scotland for use as cheap road-building material in the south of England would be a social and environmental disaster”.

Read what Friends of the Earth Scotland has to say about it here