A firm hoping to build a quarry to extract millions of tonnes of sand from a Chorley village has responded to a flood of objections to the plans.

Tarmac has submitted a proposal to build a quarry on land between Runshaw Lane and Dawbers Lane, Euxton.

Lancashire County Council received around 5,168 objections during the 21-day consultation period in 2005.

Tarmac has now responded to these objections with a 26-page document in advance of the planning application, due to be heard by the council in May. The report states: "A clear, urgent and increasing need for high-grade sand provision is demonstrated in the Lancashire Minerals Plan.

"In the absence of any other planning applications for high-grade sand quarrying in Lancashire, the Runshaw site could provide adequate volumes of a much needed mineral."

Tarmac also reveadl that there would be an increase in HGV traffic movements on Dawbers Lane of 110 per day but 'the low increases in traffic flows are unlikely to significantly affect local amenity'.

With regard to noise, Tarmac state that the effect would be screened 'by noise levels emanating from traffic using the M6'.

Other factors that Tarmac addresses are ecology, and they say they 'would form a network of substantial wildlife corridors' and landscape, where they believe the area would be enhanced by the quarry as restoration proposals would provide 'a proactive and ecologically valuable landscape'.

Bruce Carlin, of protest group Euxton Residents Against Sand Extraction (ERASE), said: "Lancashire County Council may be taken in by Tarmac's wordy response - but the residents of Euxton have heard it all before and do not believe a word of it.

"ERASE and Euxton Parish Council will be urging residents to write to the elected county councillors on the planning committee re-stating their views that a sand quarry is a wholly inappropriate development immediately to the west of such a large residential area."