Concerted local opposition to a proposal to begin open cast limestone mining on the headland above a picturesque Co Antrim village is continuing.

The company is continuing its fight to gain permission, but has this month been forced into scaling-down its plans.

Omya UK's proposal to begin open cast limestone mining on the headland above the village prompted NI Environment Minister Arlene Foster to order an enquiry.

Opinion is split sharply on Omya's bid to re-open the Parishagh quarry and begin a 30-year open-cast extraction operation.

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While East Antrim DUP MP Sammy Wilson backed the multi-national company's assertion that the proposal would secure employment, a number of villagers formed an action group and lobbied strongly against the major planning application.

Generations of Glenarm folk have lived with the environmental side-effects of quarrying since 1900, but some in the village expressed fears about the visual impact of the planned works and the knock-on effect for Glenarm's potential as a tourism hotspot on the Antrim Coast Road and at the foot of the first of the Glens of Antrim.

Objectors are sceptical of the company's claims that the workings on the headland above Glenarm Castle would be landscaped and restored.

The application for full planning permission seeks the consolidation of Omya’s existing permissions and a tunnel connecting the plant works in the Demesne quarry with the extension at Parishagh, which has not been worked since the 1960s.

The application, which was lodged in February 2005, refers to restoration of both quarries to agriculture and conservation habitats.

(BMcC/KMcA)