A PEEBLESSHIRE quarry could be allowed to operate 24/7 for parts of the year in a bid to hit “ambitious” road improvement targets set by the council.

Asphalt – used for constructing and maintaining roads and pavements – is produced at Cowieslinn Quarry, located around 10km to the north of Peebles.

Operator Breedon Trading Ltd. has turned to Scottish Borders Council to permit night-time operation at the site up to 75 times a year in order to satisfy the region’s demand for the product.

In a report supporting the application, a Breedon spokesperson said: “The asphalt plant has been established for many years and is a recognised supplier of asphalt into the Scottish Borders. Many road contracts typically require deliveries of asphalt when the major roads are least busy, which is often night time and weekends.

“The proposed development is required in order to meet the ambitious targets by the Scottish Borders Council’s Local Development Plan to carry out road improvements in the area. In order to meet the targets of the Local Development Plan 2016, it is important to ensure that resurfacing works are done with minimum disruption to traffic flows.”

The move would also help prevent “high wastage” of asphalt, which can only be used at a high temperature, according to the report.

The spokesperson added: “Once loaded into a lorry, the asphalt immediately starts to cool and becomes more difficult to work and lay the cooler it gets. There is a high demand from contractors to be able to do surfacing at night time due to less traffic disruptions and a higher and faster productivity rate.

“This proposed development will also result in less traffic disruptions during day time hours for local residents in areas where asphalt is being laid.

“In the Scottish Borders area there is a lack of alternative plants, the main ones being Tarmac Ltd’s plant at Cairneyhill and the Breedon plant located at Cowieslinn. Allowing night-time operations can reduce a haulier’s travel to alternative plants who are able to supply asphalt during night time.

“Having a manufacturing source close to the end user is therefore important to successfully laying the asphalt and avoiding a high wastage factor as asphalt immediately starts to cool once loaded into a lorry.”

According to the report, the firm missed out on a recent job to supply a Borders Tesco with asphalt for its car park due to the restrictions on the working hours.

Currently the hours of operation at the quarry are limited to 7am-8pm in the week and until 12pm on the weekends.

Minerals can only currently be dispatched from the site from 7am-6pm Monday to Friday, until 12pm on Saturday and not at all on Sunday.

The site, which has been quarried since the early 1950s, produces approximately 5,000 tonnes of asphalt per month.

If allowed, it is expected that up to 16 lorry loads of asphalt would be dispatched on each night-time operation.

No quarrying would take place overnight, if the council gives the bid the green light.

The site is predominantly surrounded by agricultural land with individual and small groups of houses and farms “within the general vicinity”.

The firm said that predictions suggest that noise levels would meet the “normally applicable night-time limit”.