Concerns raised over Perthshire company's bid to extend time it can extract material from quarry site near Dunkeld

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Perth and Kinross Council has extended a public consultation involving two planning applications filed by a company believed to be supplying material for the Cross Tay Link Road (CTLR) project after concerns were aired at a public meeting.A number of people who attended the most recent meeting of Dunkeld and Birnam Community Council (DBCC) raised a range of concerns about the local authority’s handling of the applications lodged by Mills Contractors relating to its work at Newtyle Quarry.Their concerns included a lack of notification about the applications and that it appeared no environmental bodies have been consulted about the applications despite them both involving proposals to continue extracting material from the site for a further seven-and-a-half years.One attendee, Bill Nicoll, said no one listed on a neighbour notification list put together by PKC received a letter to inform them of their right to raise representations concerning the company’s proposals to expand its operation and extend the period of time it can gather slate from the site.Mr Nicoll said he did not believe the applications should even have been considered competent and verified by the council in the first place, pointing out they had both been logged as seeking to make changes over a “temporary” period.He noted both applications propose to continue operations at the site until June 2030 and questioned how officials could accept this as being a “temporary” period.Mr Nicoll also claimed further documents filed, along with one of the applications, show Mills Contractors intend to dig up to 14 metres underground to extract material from the site.He again questioned why officials had accepted this application as meaning the company was seeking to