In reply to PW:
> This is a beautiful glen. It is the main access point to two Munroes, Beinn Sgulaird and Beinn Fhionnlaidh
Is Glen Creran really the
main access point for Beinn Fhionnlaidh? I know it is
an access point, but the shortest bagging route is from Invercharnan in Glen Etive, and there is at least one other fairly well known route which accesses Beinn Fhionnlaidh from Glen Coe via Sgor na h-Ulaidh.
> Argyll and Bute Council have requested an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to support the planning application, and this will include landscape and visual impacts and the impact on recreation and access.
Having read the EIA request, I was more than a little surprised to see no reference to Loch Creran's designation as a Special Area of Conservation and a Marine Protection Area (although it does mention the Marine Consultation Area). The SAC designation is based on the existence of biogenic reefs of horse mussels and serpulid worms. According to SNH:
By far the best developed and largest area of serpulid reefs in the world occur in Loch Creran (my emphasis). Given that the quarry is going to be situated slap bang next to the river which runs in to Loch Creran, I would have expected the risk of groundwater and runoff contamination from the quarry to be emphasised much more strongly in the EIA request. It looks to me as if the council have dropped the ball quite badly on this point.
> The mountaineering lobby is very powerful and we should be ready to oppose the industrialisation of our mountains.
The quarry site will be pretty much at sea level (the nearest spot height on the OS 1:25,000 map is 9m). Calling a development at such a location "industrialisation of our mountains" seems to be stretching the definition of "mountain" a bit far to be reasonably credible.
Regarding the quarry protest web site: I think some of its claims are open to challenge, or at least mitigation. For example, the "single track road" referred to appears to be a less than 1/4 mile stretch from the junction at the bridge over the River Ure to the start of the track which leads to the proposed quarry site (note: this is
not the track to the farm shown on the OS 1:50,000 map - the track in question is only shown on the 1:25,000 map). I agree that it wouldn't be nice to meet a sodding great tipper lorry full of aggregate along there but, given that the track would almost certainly need to be significantly upgraded to handle quarry traffic, it doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility for any permission granted to require that this stretch of public road be widened as well.
The web site also says:
The Glen overlooks magnificent views of the Munroe Mountains. Leaving aside (a) the spelling mistake, and (b) the geographical error (ie there is no such thing as "the Munroe Mountains"), it's not clear how a sea-level quarry can "overlook" 3,000ft mountains. I think I get what they're trying to say, but they're not saying it very well IMO. It does look like the quarry could well be a bit of a scar on the landscape when viewed
from Beinn Sgulaird, and indeed from other elevated locations above that part of the glen. I suspect it will not be visible from Beinn Fhionnlaidh, which is pretty well known for being difficult to see even from the start of the route from Glen Crearan - which is itself 2½ miles further up the glen from the site of the proposed quarry.
Nit-picking apart, and having been to and stayed in Glen Creran, I can quite understand people having concerns about the creation of an extraction site in a largely peaceful and undeniably attractive part of the world. I can also understand steelbru and ebdon's point about the practical uses for the proposed quarry's output. IMO it's a question of balancing the two. I would hope that, if granted, the permission would impose stringent and enforceable conditions designed to mitigate the worst of the undesirable impacts the development might have. (I'd actually be more worried about the risks posed to a site of global ecological and environmental significance than about a small part of the view being spoiled - but maybe that's just me.)
I do think that, by trying to rely on exaggerated claims about the development's adverse impact, the anti campaign could risk undermining the credibility of what would appear on the face of it to be a number of reasonable grounds for objection.
References:
The EIA request
http://media.wix.com/ugd/f1d2e0_80b9bb92aafc47239abc6141a31651ca.pdf
SNH web page about serpulid reefs
http://www.snh.gov.uk/about-scotlands-nature/species/invertebrates/marine-i...
SNH web page about the Loch Creran MPA
http://www.snh.gov.uk/protecting-scotlands-nature/protected-areas/national-...
SNH advice document about the Loch Creran SAC
http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B16627.pdf