By Liz Fowler

THE PROSPECT of almost 200 lorries a day thundering along its narrow roads has sent shockwaves through an Angus village.

It is hoped a £14 million grain storage and drying centre at Hillside on the outskirts of Montrose, proposed by a farmers’ co-operative, will be up and running by the summer of next year, if it successfully negotiates the planning process.

The Angus Cereal Partnership proposal is to build on a site next to Greencore’s Glenesk maltings at Kinnaber Road in the village.

It would be capable of handling 90,000 tonnes of grain per year, mainly from farms within a 30-mile radius, and by utilising transport more efficiently would remove 76,000 unnecessary “food miles,” Rob Sanderson, development director of Grainfarmers, told a public meeting called by Hillside Community Council to discuss the plan in more detail with residents.

A farmers-owned business, Grainfarmers, would operate the facility.

Local farmer Alex Sanger, a member of the partnership’s steering committee, said the plant would sit lower in the landscape than the existing maltings and would not overlook other properties. There would also be landscaping and bunding to reduce its impact on the landscape.

However, it was the estimate of 12 to 13 grain lorries an hour moving to and from the facility over a 14-hour day at peak harvest time in August that had villagers shuddering.

Resident Jim Atkinson said the junction of Kinnaber Road with the A937 at the Hillside Hotel, which the lorries would use, was totally unfeasible.

He said, “This is a deadly corner, anyway. It is simply not suitable for large trucks at that frequency.

“I understand this plant would create just four new jobs. It seems to me that the entire focus is on the commercial viability of the maltings when there needs to be a balance with the needs of the local community.”

Neither Kinnaber Road nor the Dubton Road, also used by the lorries, was able to accommodate the heavy traffic already visiting the distillery, others claimed.

“You see the lorries’ wheel-marks churning up the roadside verges because there isn’t room on the carriageways when they meet oncoming traffic,” said one resident. “There is another bad corner north of the maltings which has to be considered.”

Community council planning representative Jean Stubbs said she had conducted her own survey of the Kinnaber route and was appalled at the existing level of heavy traffic.

Others spoke of the disquieting experience of their homes shaking when lorries passed through the village.

Pointing to government policy towards promoting more rail freight, local councillor Sandy West told Mr Sanderson, “I think you are missing a golden opportunity by not looking to shift more of this grain by rail.”

He also pointed to the availability of Montrose harbour where shiploads of grain are already handled.

The site was well placed, adjacent to an existing railway siding, to take more advantage of the rail network but that was for the longer term, Grainfarmers regional general manager Bruce Ferguson replied.

He added, “We already export out of Montrose port and would be looking to use it more for the exports of oilseed rape and feed barley (crops which would also be stored at the new plant).”

Mr Sanderson stressed 62,000 tonnes of barley was already being transported annually to the maltings. But he conceded Kinnaber Road was narrow, making concerns about its use for heavy lorries an issue.

“We have appointed a highways consultant and would hope to implement a one-way traffic system with lorries going into the plant via the old railway siding and out Kinnaber Road.”

He stressed the heaviest traffic would be confined to a six-week summer period.

For the rest of the year, he estimated, the new store would add two lorries an hour to the village roads.”