Council / Extension proposed for Scord Quarry
AN EXTENSION of the Scord Quarry is on the cards.
Owner Shetland Islands Council (SIC) is considering extending the site by 4.9 hectares on its north-east side.
The quarry is currently around 12 hectares in area.
The SIC’s roads manager Neil Hutcheson said an extension would allow for more rock and road stone to be excavated.
Quarrying has taken place at the Scord for nearly 100 years.
As well as producing stone, the site is the only one in Shetland to support the production of asphalt.
The largest customer of the quarry has been the council’s own roads service, but it also serves the wider construction industry.
Hutcheson said a full planning application for the quarry’s extension is set to be submitted in due course.
So far, the SIC has been advised an environmental impact assessment (EIA) would not be required.
“We are going to get a biodiversity study done and an archaeological study done locally, which will form part of the planning submission,” Hutcheson said.
He added that any issues with dust and noise are “reducing all the time” as quarry activities move further away from houses and the public road.
But it has been “years and years” since there were any complaints over dust and noise, Hutcheson said.
A document from the council for the EIA screening suggested that the A970 could, over time, be realigned, which could see the existing hairpin bend at the Scord removed.
Hutcheson clarified that this is something that would only come into consideration during any further extension work – many years away.
But the roads manager said the tight bend at the top of the Scord has caused issues for drivers in the winter, which realignment could help with.
Planning documents warn that without an extension a new quarry may need to be opened and the large equipment at the Scord would need to be moved at “considerable” expense.
The document added that investigations were undertaken in 2003 into alternative locations, which highlighted little scope for suitable sites in the Central Mainland area.
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