CAMPAIGNERS are objecting to plans to install a waste water pipeline next to an historic rock formation on the Scottish coast.
Geologists say the rockface at Siccar Point, near Cockburnspath on the Berwickshire coast, is being threatened by a local vegetable producer's plan to install a waste water pipeline nearby.
In the past month 400 experts and enthusiasts from around the world have sent their objection to Scottish Borders Council. The plan has been condemned as "cultural vandalism" and likened to building a waste incinerator at Stonehenge.
Drysdales, the company behind the plan, insists the pipeline will have "no impact" on the site.
Siccar Point is where, in 1788, the Scottish father of geology, James Hutton, discovered proof in the layers of rock that the world was millions of years old.
His theory of "deep time" was one of the key insights of the Scottish enlightenment, leading directly to how we now understand the earth. "It marks a key point in the history of human understanding of the planet which supports us," said Professor Aubrey Manning, a distinguished conservationist and broadcaster at Edinburgh University.
The proposed pipeline would "scar" the setting of one of the world's most cherished geological features, he argued.
Drysdales stressed it has worked with SNH and other Government agencies to come up with a plan that will not harm Siccar Point.
Chairman Stuart Edwards said the pipeline would be buried underground and would discharge "filtered vegetable washing water" into the sea four yards below low tide.
"It won't have a visual impact," he said. "I'm confident it won't damage Siccar Point."
A planning application is due to be considered by Scottish Borders Council in the next few weeks.
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