IT will be almost as big as Biggar, extract nearly five million tonnes of gravel, and generate more than 400,000 lorry journeys. And it's kicking up a storm in South Lanarkshire. Plans for a massive new quarry on the banks of the Clyde near Lamington, south west of Biggar, are running into fierce opposition.

Local people fear fishing, farming, wildlife and tourism will be ruined in one of Scotland's forgotten beauty spots.

"It's environmental madness," said Arthur Bell, president of Biggar and District Civic Society. "It will make this landscape of outstanding natural beauty look like that of the Western Front in 1916."

The landfill and quarrying company Patersons of Greenoakhill in Glasgow has applied for planning permission for a 37-hectare sand-and-gravel quarry at Overburns farm, below Tinto hill. According to the application, 4.6 million tonnes of sand and gravel will be dug out to a depth of nine metres over 11 to 15 years. 112 extra journeys a day by heavy goods vehicles.

Patersons insists the environmental damage caused by the quarry will be reduced to "acceptable levels" by good design and practice.

The Sunday Herald revealed in June that Patersons was named and shamed for one of the worst pollution performances in Scotland. Its landfill site at Greenoakhill was guilty of "repeated non-compliance with a number of permit conditions", according to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Caroline Parker chairs the Clyde River Action Group, formed to oppose the quarry. She said: "A truly wonderful site, with a famous river-fishing stretch, is put at deadly risk by this application. Many small businesses will suffer and there will certainly be job losses in the hotel sector."

Her husband Ian is worried pollution from the quarry could threaten his organic milk business. That part of the Clyde is renown for some of the best wild trout fishing in Britain.

"Flooding that may result from the quarry could have a huge detrimental effect on the river," said Maggie Martin, secretary of the Lamington and District Angling Improvement Association.

Other residents fear for their health from dust kicked up by quarrying.

But Kemp Lindsey, estates director for Patersons of Greenoakhill, attacked the objectors for having "closed minds". Their allegations were "totally unfounded and totally unjustified", he said.

He accused the angling association of failing to respond to requests for a meeting and brushed aside the company's poor pollution record at the Greenoakhill landfill site, saying it was an entirely different operation. A detailed environmental assessment of the proposed quarry had shown that its impact would be "insignificant or non-existent", Lindsey maintained.

It wouldn't be visible from many places, it wouldn't damage wildlife or farming and it would have "no detrimental impact whatsoever" on the Clyde and its fish.

The increase in lorry trips would only add two per cent to the traffic on the A702 and so would be "acceptable", he argued. And the quarry would be restored as it was worked, with the aim of making it more attractive to wildlife.