LOCALS objecting to plans to extend Scout Moor Quarry in Ramsbottom have won the backing of councillors in Rossendale.

Since the plans came to light last year residents of Turn Village in Edenfield have been leading a high-profile campaign to block the application.

They claim they will have to put up with 450 lorry loads a day thundering through the village if the application by Marshalls Mono is approved.

Now, councillors have joined the fight and have vowed to take the battle to Lancashire County Council who will decide whether to give the plans go-ahead.

The applicants want to extract 470,000 tonnes of rough rock a year - one-third destined for its concrete works in Ramsbottom and the rest for Halifax.

But borough engineers have estimated that extra quarrying would mean 450 lorry loads of rock a day heading for the M66 through Edenfield.

Local councillors have attacked the £50,000 of roadworks proposed by Marshalls to improve the situation as "merely cosmetic."

Edenfield councillor Philip Dunne praised the residents associations of Turn and Edenfield for their determined fight against the plans. He told Rossendale Council's engineering committee: "I am pleased that we will be objecting in the strongest possible terms to this proposal. The county need to know that local knowledge suggests there should be strong objections to this scheme.

"The county surveyor is raising no objections on the basis that some £50,000 is likely to be spent on roadworks. This committee will know that £50,000 doesn't go far. It will only be cosmetic work."

Committee chairman, Councillor Alan Fishwick added: "In the 19th century special railways were built to carry stone from quarries. We are now talking of moving it by road which is quite a primitive way of doing it."

Rossendale Council is also backing English Nature's objections to the scheme on the grounds that the area has been designated a biological heritage site as it contains a rare type of blanket bog.

The RSPB is also concerned about twite, golden plover, curlew and wheatear which breed in the area.

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