Geoff Scurr Contracting Ltd has applied to the Dunedin City Council for a new resource consent to extract 30,000cu m of rock a year on average, but up to 45,000cu m of rock in some years, from the Pryde Rd quarry, near Warrington.
The application came amid concerns from council staff and neighbours the company had been operating beyond an existing consent from 1998, restricting extraction to 5000cu m a year, by taking about 15,000cu m a year.
Quarry owners Geoff and Tracey Scurr disputed that, arguing the 1998 consent had no conditions restricting extraction or other activities, but had decided to apply for a new consent to ensure they were operating legally and to future-proof the business.
The application prompted four Pryde Rd neighbours to make a joint submission against the expansion at a council consent hearing in Dunedin yesterday.
Jennifer Ashby and husband Simon Ryan said they did not want the quarry to be forced to close, but were opposed to an expansion.
Both worried the expansion would lead to an increase in noise and dust coming from the quarry, and from heavy vehicles using the gravel Pryde Rd to access the site, disrupting their home life.
Mrs Ashby also worried the safety of their two young children could be threatened by an increase in heavy vehicles.
The couple had been "run off the road" twice by heavy vehicles using the narrow access road, including once with the children in their car.
The most recent incident came just last week, when Mrs Ashby was forced to take evasive action and drive off the road to avoid a truck, she said.
Such was the threat, she would not let her daughter walk down Pryde Rd to catch the school bus.
Lyndon Clayton told the hearing heavy traffic on the road had slowly increased since he moved to the area in 1996, and the road could be "very dangerous" at times.
It was built to cater for traffic from three farms and a small-scale quarry, but "that's no longer the case", and Mr and Mrs Scurr could not control the behaviour of truck drivers using the road, he said.
He had witnessed trucks narrowly missing pedestrians and the school bus, and even jack-knifing on the road, and believed it was "not if there's going to be an accident - it's when".
"My wife and my two sons use the road. I fear for their safety at times," he said.
The arguments came after Mrs Scurr told the committee the neighbours' written submissions had come as a shock, as there had been no complaints to the council and only a few raised directly with her or Mr Scurr, which were "sorted out promptly".
She was "saddened" to hear their road safety concerns, but accepted the single-lane road needed more passing bays to improve safety.
A new management plan being developed by the company would also include a 40kmh speed limit for heavy vehicles using the quarry, which was already being trialled.
Earlier, presenting the reasons for the application, Mrs Scurr spelled out the company's desire to expand the quarry while allowing the "flexibility" to take between 15,000cu m and 45,000cu m of rock a year.
In return, the company was proposing restricted hours of operation on weekdays and Saturdays, dust control measures, site rehabilitation plans and a process to notify neighbours of blasting plans, and a complaints procedure.
A report by council planner Darryl Sycamore has instead recommended granting consent for a smaller operation, limited to 15,000cu m a year, together with limited hours and other conditions, including limiting heavy vehicle movements to 20 each day.
That would protect neighbours while allowing existing operation to continue as it already was, he said.
However, Mrs Scurr responded yesterday by threatening to hand back any new consent issued that did not allow an expansion in extraction, but placed new conditions on the existing operation.
Instead, she would continue the existing operation under the 1998 consent, which had less conditions attached.
"Why should we accept a proposal that someone else proposes for us?"
Yesterday's council hearings committee - chaired by Cr Colin Weatherall - also heard from planning consultant Allan Cubitt, on behalf of Geoff Scurr Contracting Ltd.
Expert evidence also came from environmental engineer Prudence Harwood, of Beca Infrastructure, who agreed dust problems could be managed.
Road Metals Co Ltd general manager George Kelcher also highlighted the importance of the quarry to development in the area.
Cr Weatherall adjourned the hearing late yesterday afternoon, with the committee to conduct a site visit before resuming in a few weeks.
