A DUMBARTON quarry could be set to operate for another 20 years if plans are approved this week.

Dumbuckhill Quarry’s owners want to extend the current expiry date from 2024 to 2041 as well as securing new agreements for a review of old mineral permissions (ROMP) to bring quarry practices up to date.

The two-part application to councillors on West Dunbartonshire Council’s planning committee follows a similar bid by nearby Sheephill Quarry earlier this year.

In that case, the local authority’s chief executive tried to get a committee decision overturned by the full council.

She claimed it could cost more than £2.4million if the company appealed.

Sheephill Quarry saw new standards through a ROMP approved, but councillors rejected a land-swap proposal that would have extended the quarry’s size to the north-west.

Dumbuckhill Quarry is not asking to change the size of the land they are digging into, just the number of years they can extract whinstone.

Some residents in Milton, in between the two quarries, have raised objections to both plans.

The Dumbuckhill site covers 30 hectares, but the extraction site is about 11 hectares of that.

The quarry’s workings are about 300 metres from homes in Milton and Dumbarton.

The quarry has been in operation since 1948 and in 2004, the quarry area was extended along the eastern edge.

A total of 51 conditions were applied to the 2004 permission along with then current standards, which included extraction of another five million tonnes of rock. That was to expire on April 4, 2024.

In 2015, an application to change a number of conditions was rejected because of the impact on the landscape.

The new application argues that a previous owner mothballed the quarry for a number of years and that the 17-year extension to its lifespan, which will include required restoration of the site, is justified.

New conditions under the ROMP are designed not to “adversely” affect the economic viability of the quarry so the council doesn’t have to pay compensation to the owner.

There were 14 objections to the planning application, focusing on the impact on the landscape, noise levels, dust, and the council’s previous rejection of a bid.

Planners are arguing that both the ROMP and added lifespan should be approved, noting that 70 per cent of the mineral reserve at the quarry has yet to be extracted.

If agreed, councillors would hand over authority to council officers for a final decision on conditions and to work out a legal agreement on a restoration bond for the quarry.