Residents furious at �government of cowards�

Ministers have refused to intervene to block controversial plans to almost double the size of Scotland's largest superquarry at Glensanda, near Oban.

Subject to final legal negotiations, the expansion now looks set to go ahead. This has infuriated local residents, who say the environment will be polluted and the landscape ruined.

"What makes me angry is that we have a government of cowards," said Jeremy Gilchrist from the nearby Isle of Lismore. "They are prepared to see a great and beautiful landscape laid waste rather than stand up for their country."

The Sunday Herald reported last October that Highland Council had given the go-ahead to plans by the Swiss multinational Holcim to increase the size of the granite quarry from 125 to 206 hectares.

Holcim bought Foster Yeoman, the family company that has run Glensanda for more than two decades, in June 2006.

In a last-ditch attempt to block the expansion residents have been lobbying ministers to call in Holcim's planning application. But their pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and the application has been referred back to Highland Council.

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive confirmed that ministers were not intending to intervene. "There was no case for call-in and the application was sent back to the council for final determination," he said.

"We understand Highland Council and the applicant are finalising the terms of legal agreements covering community benefits and site restoration. Planning consent has not therefore been issued."

The spokesman pointed out that although the application would increase the area of the quarry, it would not extend its operation beyond 2043. He dismissed suggestions that ministers might be influenced by payments made by Glensanda under the aggregates levy, as the money went to the UK government and not to the Scottish Executive.

Holcim is one of the world's leading quarrying and cement companies, employing 90,000 people in more than 70 countries. In 2005 it made a profit of £1.4 billion on sales of £7.7bn.

Opponents of the expansion, however, have pointed out that cement plants run by Holcim or its associated companies in the US have been fined five times since 1993 for pollution offences.

The company is a "planet-trasher", they claim, and might not abide by planning conditions designed to minimise the quarry's environmental impact.

This is denied, however, by Holcim, which insisted that it had high environmental standards. The Holcim subsidiary which had bought Glensanda, Aggregate Industries, maintained that it pursued "the highest standards in quarry management through close collaboration with its neighbouring communities".