Inquiry needed

Gavin McCrone (Letters, 24 December) is quite correct: the decision by South Lanarkshire Council to approve the western expansion of a quarry in the buffer zone for the New Lanark World Heritage site, which includes the spectacular and much-visited Falls of Clyde, runs counter to Unesco opinion and contradicts the assurance by Donald Dewar that no such development would be allowed.

I join him in urging the present First Minister to honour the assurance given by his predecessor by calling in the application for consideration by a planning inquiry. The many objectors would then be able to get their views publicly and properly examined. For example, if any extension of the quarry is needed, it could be provided by an extension to the south, which would not damage the buffer zone and, accordingly, would not be objectionable. 

RD Cramond CBE

Dun-Ard Garden

Oswald Road, Edinburgh