ACT NOW TO STOP SCOTLAND'S HISTORY BEING BLASTED AWAY!

All may seem quiet on the Gillies Hill front.
(click here for full media release PDF)

But it’s probably the quiet before the storm, for the threat to the Hill grows. Firstly, the danger from quarrying remains. Yes, three years of our campaign have been very successful: scarcely had Hanson Aggregates announced its intention to extend quarrying in November, 2006 than Save Gillies Hill was born – and Hanson then put those intentions on hold. But our principal aim, to persuade the quarriers to set aside the 2002 Review by Stirling Council, which confirmed permission to expand quarrying – now generally recognised as legally flawed - and to conduct the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) that should have been ordered then, has not yet been realised.

Save Gillies Hill has not been quiet either, but has had, and continues to have, intensive discussions channelled through our own Community Council, which is 100% behind the campaign, with Stirling Council, over the implications of the error that occurred in 2002; with, in the next few weeks, Drygrange Estates, owners of the Hill; and, most important of all, with our own legal advisers.

To legal lay-people, the present stand-off may seem simple: an error was made in 2002 by Stirling Council, and admitted by it in 2008. Save Gillies Hill accepted the Council’s then position: the legislation that had required an EIA was, after all, complex, and the Council committed itself in January 2008 to persuade Hanson to thereafter conduct one. The fact that Hanson has not yet done so, and that therefore it continues to have permission, albeit, in the opinion of legal experts, a flawed permission, should, surely, make future quarrying impossible – at least until an EIA is carried out. But, as usual with the law, things aren’t so simple: ultimately, it may require someone to challenge that perceived invalid legal position in court. Which is, literally, a court of last resort.

The one thing about the law that legal laypersons know about it is that it is highly complex, indeed, often apparently perverse: legal judgements sometimes seem to be at odds with fairness or common sense. It is also, of course, very expensive.

Stirling Council say that, as the body which endorsed the 2002 Review, it is legally prevented from seeking it to be overturned. However, back in 2008 when it recognised its error, it did indicate that a third party could seek that reversal, and implied that the Council might be able to offer that party support. Hence present discussions between Cambusbarron Community Council and Stirling Council.

Of course, this legal impasse could be resolved by Hanson’s agreement to conduct an EIA. Alternatively, it may brazen things out – in theory, it can, unless legally challenged, activate its permission any time up to 2042. And, even if, in the fullness of time, another company replaces Hanson, that new quarrier could simply inherit that permission. And ominously, the owners of the land, Drygrange Estates, have recently emphasised that, for them, mineral extraction on the Gillies Hill remains a priority. But not the only one.

A second threat to the Gillies Hill has emerged recently with Drygrange’s declared interest, as revealed in Stirling Council’s consultations on its Local Plan, in house building on three separate areas of the Hill. (An inevitable thought: for how long after initial development might these areas remain separate?)

Not only would Polmaise Gardens, above Seven Sisters’ Field, and the Fairy Hill on the Commondry (or Old Drove Road) once again come under threat, as they were back in 1996 when development was successfully repulsed, largely through the efforts of the Community Council, but a third area, in the immediate vicinity of Polmaise Castle itself, represents new ‘thinking’ by developers. All the arguments about the impact of quarrying on wild life, recreation, history and amenity, are as valid in the light of these new threats. And when you consider that the Local Plan also indicates expressions of interest in housing development on the unwooded areas of Gillies Hill – in the Seven Sisters’ Field itself, in almost all the fields to the east of Polmaise Road beyond Bearside, even in the field next to the Football Park and to the west of Hayford Mill, you might want to raise your hands in surrender. But don’t. We’ve resisted the quarry for over three years. Keep resisting, keep fighting.

Write to your MP, your MSPs, your Councillors. And continue the fight to save Gillies Hill by supporting SGH events and initiatives (these, more than merely legal, are outlined elsewhere in this Newsletter) this year.

If you want to preserve this unique landscape

Act Now Before It Is Too Late