'˜C'mon Nicola - get them telt!'

SOL anti-quarry campaign with postcards for First Minister

The total number of its special postcards to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, appealing to her to block the plan, has reached 3,500, each personally signed by a worried local resident or visitor to the area with their own personal message to her.

One urged the FM “C’mon oor Nicola!” with another urging “Get them telt!”

The ‘them’ referred to is Cemex, the Mexican-based minerals giant which has been working Lanark’s Hyndford Quarry for decades but is now making what is its third bid to expand it into the official conservation ‘Buffer Zone’ around New Lanark, designed to protect the UNESCO World Heritage Site from inappropriate developments.

Those who feel quarrying in the scenic Bonnington area would be highly damaging not only to the scenery but to the vital local tourist industry have banded together in the campaigning group Save Our Landscapes.

Commenting, the group’s chair, Mark Stephens, said: “Thousands upon thousands of visitors to the adjoining Falls of Clyde have already sent in objection letters and signed petitions to voice their opposition to the quarry.

“But that was a few years ago, and we wanted to remind the politicians just how strongly people feel about this issue.

“The postcards hammer home key messages: UNESCO has told the Scottish Government that the area is vital to New Lanark.

“The Scottish Government DID assure UNESCO that the area was protected from quarrying and jobs at the New Lanark World Heritage Site are at risk if the quarry goes ahead,” he added.