 The plan has caused controversy |
Human waste from hundreds of miles away could soon be travelling up the motorway to be spread on a former opencast coal site in south Lanarkshire. Scottish Coal has agreed a pilot scheme with Thames Water to take treated sewage from England.
The Dalquhandy opencast coal mine near the village of Coalburn was once the largest in Europe.
It is gradually being restored and landscaped.
Now its owners Scottish Coal have awarded a contract to Thames Water to receive by-products from treated sewage, which they claim will help enrich the soil and encourage plant growth.
Initially, there will be 2000 tonnes a week for six months.
'Over the mark'
A spokesman for the coal company said it was a well established technique and the local councillor for the area Danny Miekle backed the plan, provided the material is safe.
"We've got a black hole there that is short of soils and what I believe they are trying to do is mix that with what soil is there and turn it into a green area.
"That must be good for the area."
However, Councillor Miekle's predecessor Lyndsay Addison has branded the idea "horrifying" and believes the council and Scottish Coal have stepped well over the mark of acceptability.
He said: "Clearly the distance this is travelling is absolutely astonishing. Why they would take human excrement up the main spinal road of England to Scotland to then bring it here to drop it in a whole, why?"
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