SOUTH Lanarkshire Council will have three planning applications before it on June 24 which could affect the location of Lawrie & Symington's Lanark market.

The company wants to quit its present site close to the town centre, and move to land it owns beside the race course.

An outline planning application for such a move has been with the council for some months.

That strategy is, however, based on the assumption that the present market site would be bought by a supermarket company.

The income from that sale would be used to meet the capital costs of building a new market.

Lawrie & Symington had hoped to achieve that aim with the co-operation of Safeway, which has expressed an interest in the market site.

However, Tesco is also keen to build a new store in Lanark and is seeking planning permission for another town-centre site.

All three proposals will be considered by the council on June 24.

Hunter Murray, director in charge at Lanark, said income from the sale of the mart was an essential part of the company's plan.

However, should the supermarket deal fall through, the company owns a parcel of about 40 acres of land, zoned for housing, which could also be a source of finance.

There is also the possibility of some alternative, but perhaps less lucrative, development on the market site.

THE country's dairy farmers would be well advised to begin preparing for the abandonment of milk quotas and a move towards world prices, according to speakers at yesterday's Scottish Dairy Conference in Peebles.

North-east farmer and businessman Maitland Mackie claimed it was essential from the producer's point of view to get rid of ''those damned quotas''.

He also challenged the need for any lengthy period of adjustment, insisting that the appropriate time scale would be within 12 to 24 months.

He cautioned producers against the expectation that a considerable hike in prices was the solution to their problems.

''I suspect the current price is not far off the market price. The price has to find its level and there is no such thing as a fair price, just something called the market price,'' he said.

Mackie was echoing a theme raised by the main speakers at the conference, that the quota system would have to come to an end.

While the UK Government is in favour of getting rid of quotas it was Tony Cameron, Agriculture Secretary at the Scottish Office, who offered a word of comfort to those who want to see the status quo maintained.

The European Commission was tuned in to the internal politics of the situation and its view at present was there was ''not a hope in hell'' of getting Ministers to agree to end quotas, he said.

They were not getting signals that quotas were a bad idea. The signals were mixed, which led to them doing ''not very much''.

John Duncan, chairman of the major milk-buying co-op

Scottish Milk, said it was easy for industry leaders to discuss a future with no quotas and lower prices but it was a source of concern to the average dairy farmer.

If restrictions were taken off tomorrow production would go up by 10% and the bottom 25% of producers would want to quit the industry, he suggested.

Jim Begg, marketing director of the Dairy Industry Federation, agreed with Scottish Office

Agriculture Minister Lord Sewel's view that the UK should be

getting into world markets. The quota system was a barrier to growth in the UK.

At present, the domestic market provided 88% of the industry's revenue.

Rory O' Mahony, chief

executive of Avonmore

Waterford's consumer foods group, advocated concentrating on growing the size of the market and worrying later about how the cake was to be divided.

''A dynamic market will add value and then we will have something worth fighting over.''

Ian Gardiner, policy director of the England and Wales NFU, supported the dismantling of quotas and argued that the commission had to make clear its own position.

''It worries me that we will lose time over the next few years,'' he said.

''If we are going down the road towards a world competitive position we have to get started now.''

One problem, he conceded, was that within COPA - the European umbrella body for farmers' organisations - there was only a small group taking a line of favour of world competition.

The milk sector was undoubtedly lagging behind the beef and arable sectors in that regard.

However, under the terms of the world trade agreement the future would be one of less support

related to production.

''We cannot look back. We have to look forward, with freedom to expand production so that the lower unit price can be offset by greater output.''