Garff Commissioners says it is prepared to fully back revised plans for sewage disposal in the east of the island, if certain requirements are met.

Controversial proposals to build a site on Laxey harbour were rejected last year with residents raising concerns about the visual impact and increased traffic.

Manx Utilities has now issued a ’call for sites’ as it investigates potential new locations for a sewage treatment works to handle sewage from Laxey and Baldrine.

It is also asking for suggestions for potential sites of sewage pumping stations between Laxey and Onchan.

MU have said that it is still aiming to find a solution which stops the discharge of raw sewage into the sea, as is currently done in Laxey and Peel.

Garff commissioner Jamie Smith commented: ’There’s been a lot going on in the background since the original planning application was rejected.

’I think MU and their consultants realise now that they didn’t give enough importance to the sensitivity of Laxey promenade and harbour for local residents.

’They’ve looked at various options and they’re keeping an open mind, which is what we asked them to do.

’They’ve looked into the possibility of pumping [sewage] to Meary Veg via Onchan, the possibility of combined sites for Laxey and Onchan. They’ve also looked at - if it were to come back to that same site - how they could mitigate the visual impact’

He also said that he understood there was not a ’bottomless bucket of money’, but that within those constraints he thought that MU were doing a good job at looking for a sensible solution.

He concluded that if the commissioners could ’get MU to come up with the best solution’ then ’we will back them all the way’.