Almost five hectares of forest will be lost in Lockerbie after a new quarry development got the go-ahead.
However, Dumfries and Galloway Council gave permission on the condition that replacement trees will be planted elsewhere to make up for the loss.
The council’s planning committee last week gave the green light to Hoddam Contracting to begin excavation works at the Hazelbank Plantation site.
Hoddam Contracting, which already runs Kilblane Quarry at Locharbriggs and Broom Quarry near Powfoot, has permission to dig deep into an area of commercial forestry plantation for the next 28 years.
The site is located around 2.2km to the north of St Ann’s and 10 km south of Moffat.
At last week’s meeting, David Suttie, the council’s planning and building standards officer, said: “There already has been some historical quarrying on the site.
“There is a lot of tree coverage on the site. 4.7 hectares of trees would be removed, but we would be looking for compensatory planting to offset that loss of trees.
“The site that’s been chosen – because there’s no opportunity to put it within the application site – is Broomdykes near Kirkton, some 15km to the south-west.”
The council officers explained that there would be an estimated 26 lorry movements per day at the site – equating to two or three movements per hour.
“To put that into context, there are 4,900 movements per day on the A701 at the moment,” said Mr Suttie.
“So, an additional two to three per day is not considered to be unduly onerous on the road network.”
Hoddam Contracting, which has a head office in Ecclefechan, will also be installing site offices and create access roads to the site.
