AN application to extract thousands of tonnes of stone from Heskin Delph quarry near Chorley to make way for a diving school has been refused by planning chiefs at County Hall.

In a meeting by the Environment Directorate on July 18, the application by Manchester-based company Keelcraft Ltd to remove 10,000 tonnes of sandstone over an 18 month period was refused over concerns about the impact on nearby roads.

The company wanted to extract the stone to achieve varying depths in the quarry which would eventually be flooded and used as a commercial diving facility.

But a spokesman from the county council's environment directorate said: "The application was refused because of the impact on amenities and highways.

"The applicant wanted the decision to be deferred until September 5 to allow time to overcome the objections but we felt they could not be overcome."

Chorley Borough Councillor Alan Whittaker, who is also clerk to Heskin Parish Council, said: "I think the county council's decision was correct. I am not a member of the committee but if I had been I would have objected.

"Exporting stone would have caused all sorts of problems such as noise, dust and poor road safety -- the roads nearby are narrow and a number of other bodies agreed it would have been dangerous." He said he fully agreed with Chorley Borough Council's decision to grant Keelcraft Ltd permission to change the use of the quarry to a diving school in 1999. But he added: "They should have specified what they intended to do in the first place and should have known how deep the quarry was before they applied.

"They should now accommodate the diving depths by moving stone within the quarry -- excavating is not an option."

Paul Chapman, director of Keelcraft, said he was disappointed by the news: "We wanted to do something sensible with the quarry and we're the ones that are jumped on. So many people have died as a result of accidents there and we wanted to create a secure, safe school which would benefit the area.

"All we wanted to do was the short term removal of stone. The reason we didn't know this in the first instance is because we couldn't adequately survey the quarry as it was in such a mess with dumped cars and machinery littering the bed."

He said there was no motivation of profit as the cost of exporting the stone would barely have balanced with the profits.