BRINSCALL quarry could soon blast its last if Government proposals on noise reduction -- which would mean it would have to operate at quieter levels than a library -- get the go-ahead.

Plans to reduce the levels of noise from quarries to less than 42 decibels have been put forward by the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) in a consultation paper on Mineral Planning Guidance.

The news has been greeted with disgust by the quarrying industry.

A spokesman for Hanson Aggregate, which runs Brinscall Quarry, said: "It is completely unworkable.

"They are more or less saying that an industry process has to carry on in silence.

"A cock crowing in the morning would break those regulations."

And he said that Hanson had not received a single complaint from local residents in the last 12 months about the noise levels at the quarry in Butterworth Brow.

The proposals set out by the DETR demand that levels of noise should fall to below 37 decibels in five years -- that is three decibels below the typical levels of a public library, according to the Quarry Products Association (QPA), the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, surfacing, ready-mixed concrete and mortar industries.

QPA director general Simon van der Byl said: "These new proposals would devastate the quarrying industry and make most quarries inoperable.

"If the Government presses ahead we will be unable to supply our customers in the construction industry and elsewhere. 40,000 jobs, mainly in rural areas, will be lost."

But a spokesman for Hanson Aggregates said jobs at Brinscall Quarry were safe.

He said: "I think the Government will realise it has made a blunder."

He said he was confident the proposals would be redrafted to more realistic levels, following the consultation period.

Brinscall Quarry currently employs 20 people on site, around 20 drivers' jobs depend on the working of the quarry for work, and all the output from Brinscall is used in the local construction industry.