DRY Rigg Quarry at Helwith Bridge is seeking permission to continue works until 2009.

The quarry employs 15 staff on site and provides additional jobs in associated haulage, contract and supply industries.

It currently has permission to operate until 2005, but is seeking a four-and-a-half-year extension to exhaust the gritstone mineral supplies below Moughton Nab.

In a bid to reduce opposition to the plans, owners Lafarge Aggregates propose to limit quarry traffic to the hours of 7.30am to 3.30pm on weekdays with no weekend deliveries.

Currently hauliers make an average of 112 weekday movements, mainly passing through Settle town centre between 6am and 5pm on weekdays and 6am to noon on Saturdays.

Some hauliers antagonise residents by passing through the town in the early hours in a bid to ensure they get the maximum number of deliveries in each day.

Lafarge is also considering re-routing some of the town centre trips via Settle bypass.

However, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is recommending refusal of the application, saying it is not in the public interest to extend the life of the quarry.

Officers also believe any economic benefits fail to outweigh the adverse consequences to the environment.

In a report to members of the planning committee, officers state: "The proposals would result in an additional period during which the natural beauty and public enjoyment of this area of the National Park would continue to be substantially diminished."

Under the original planning application Lafarge pledged to "restore" the site after 2005, removing all plant and buildings and the screening mounds which surround the lower part of the quarry adjacent to Swarth Moor, a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). The quarry face below Moughton Nab would remain, but the main quarry excavation to the west would be filled with water to form a deep lake.

The new application proposes a more ambitious restoration project. A raised bog, upland wetland and fen system would be created and managed, along with a new footpath, through a 20 year after care period.

Lafarge says a significant reduction in demand for aggregates in the late 1990s means 1.5 million tonnes of reserves will remain in the quarry if it has to close in two years' time.

If the extension is granted the area which is quarried will remain the same with no horizontal expansion or deepening beyond the existing permitted level.

Last spring the company held a series of public exhibitions outlining their proposals.

But campaigner Andrew Fawcett, chairman of the action group Trucks out of Settle, wants the planning committee to look closely at the application.

He said: "Is the quarry cutting traffic or are they just changing the times?

"Will there be the same amount of trucks going through Settle but compressed into a smaller amount of time? The density of trucks might increase.

"Do they mean they will be finishing at 3.30pm or will the last lorry be leaving the quarry at 3.30pm because our schools finish around then - it's a peak time?

"We have trucks going by at 4am and know they go up to the quarry, have a butty and wait until they are allowed to go through and I think we will still get this.

"Will they use the bypass? Nothing voluntary will change anything, it's money that speaks."

Quarrying has been a feature of the Horton area since 1780. By the mid-19th century there were 15 quarries working slate, flags, sandstone and limestone.

Dry Rigg Quarry became more mechanised in the 1930s and during the Second World War was taken over by George Greenwood. In 1964 it was acquired by Redland plc and in 1998 became part of Lafarge.

National Park planners will consider the application at a meeting in Hawes on Tuesday.