As councillors finally cast their votes on a development application for a new quarry at Napoleon Reef, it was clear the Dunkeld kennels decision earlier this year was weighing on their minds.

In that case, a majority of councillors twice rejected the advice of council’s own planning staff and knocked back the development at the urging of residents living near the site on Marys Lane.

The case ended up in the Land and Environment Court where council was comprehensively defeated, costing ratepayers in excess of $100,000 in the process.

That defeat, and the criticism of the councillors who voted to knock back the DA in the first place, was a stinging rebuke that councillors were not keen to see repeated on Wednesday.

Before getting the chance to vote, councillors heard from more than a dozen Napoleon Reef residents who presented reasoned – and often emotional – arguments against the approval of the quarry in a well-organised, last-ditch appeal.

But by then it was too late – several months too late as it turned out because councillors were not about to go against the advice of their planning staff again.

A number of councillors even made reference to the Dunkeld case as they discussed the matter and it was obvious well before the mayor called for a show of hands that the residents were going to leave the chamber disappointed.

The quarry developers must now comply with a list of around 30 conditions before they can begin extracting rock from the ground and it is to be hoped those conditions ultimately address their neighbours’ long list of concerns.

And then it’s to be hoped that the animosity of this process can finally be put to rest for the sake of the Napoleon Reef community.