LAFARGE Aggregates put its case for extending the life of Dry Rigg quarry to the North Craven public this week.

The company, which extracts high quality gritstone at the Helwith Bridge site, held exhibitions in Settle and Langcliffe to explain a forthcoming planning application to close the quarry in 2010 instead of 2006.

John Sinclair, Lafarge project manager, blamed cutbacks in the national road building programme for a fall in demand for Dry Rigg's gritstone, saying it was going to take longer to remove the stone it already had permission to mine.

Lafarge now wants more time to remove the aggregates at Dry Rigg, and has promised only to blast deeper, not to extend the boundaries of the quarry.

Afterwards, it plans an extensive restoration of the site, including a deep lake and creation of a raised bogland wildlife area.

The scheme would follow on from a nine-year project by the firm in conjunction with the University of Huddersfield to examine wildlife around Dry Rigg.

"The restoration will be the natural conclusion to the work already done. The idea is to manage the site in the long term with a management team including English Nature and others in place.

"We feel that we have a resource, the removal of which has already been permitted, and if it leads to a longer term environmental benefit for the national park then so much the better," said Mr Sinclair.

Traffic through Settle was a major issue and Lafarge had commissioned a report from consultants, added Mr Sinclair.

"It is not in our gift to take a lead on alternative routes, we don't know what the highways authority will say about routes," he said.

"We can, though, change our delivery hours and this is what we plan to do.

"There will be no deliveries from Dry Rigg before 7.30am during the week - currently they start at 6am - and no deliveries at weekends."

Councillors and representatives of various bodies were at the exhibitions.

Hilary Fenten, of the local branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, said she was pleased to see there would be no extension of the quarry outwards, just downwards, but stressed she had not yet reached a decision on whether or not to back the proposal.

She said: "We are concerned that the off road vehicles, especially motorbikes, don't use it as a playground afterwards so that the wildlife, the birds and plants, aren't threatened, and they do seem to be aware of that."

The final decision will rest with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which will receive a planning application from Lafarge in due course.