DIGGING HIMSELF OUT OF A HOLE

THE wildlife boss at the centre of the row over plans for a "superquarry" in Scotland is the same man who launched the plan in the first place.

Confused? Well, he says he isn't.

Robert Napier, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund in the UK, has been battling to stop the world's biggest cement firm building the controversial site on the Isle of Harris.

The French company Lafarge wants to mine 600 million tons of stone from a conservation area on the Hebridean isle over the next 60 years.

But it is facing fierce opposition - especially from Mr Napier, who was once the chief executive of the Lafarge subsidiary Redland Aggregates, which originally tried to open the quarry.

Now he may be part of the winning side after all, as Lafarge has lost a court appeal against an official decision blocking its application.

Mr Napier said recently: "I was 51 to 49 per cent on the social arguments, but I now see it the other way round. I can also see there is no demand for the quarry, so we are very opposed to what Lafarge is doing."

The court decision is the latest twist in what has been Scotland's longest-ever planning dispute, with residents, Scottish ministers and environmentalists waging a 10-year war against the proposal.

Environmentalists claim the quarry would leave a scar on the landscape six times higher than the Dover cliffs, and so would destroy an area of natural beauty.

Despite the court decision, Lafarge says it won't give up until a final decision has been made by the Scottish Executive - expected in a few months' time.

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