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KILDARE LOCALS ARE crowdfunding for a judicial review against An Bord Pleanála’s decision to approve a controversial 32-hectare sand and gravel quarry located near houses and a school, and that runs through the “heartland of Kildare’s thoroughbred breeding country”.
The approval from the planning authority goes against the advice of its inspectors report, which said that the development would “seriously injure the amenities of properties in the vicinity by reason of dust, traffic and general disturbance”.
“The proposed development, would therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area,” the inspector’s report concluded.
The proposal by Kilsaran Concrete is for a 32.2 hectare sand and gravel quarry at Racefield, Ballyshannon in Co Kildare. The plan proposes to extract sand and gravel at a rate of 250,000 tonnes a year, gathering an estimated three million tonnes over the 12-year period proposed.
The initial planning application submitted to Kildare County Council received over 200 objections, including from high-profile jockey Ruby Walsh, the Aga Khan and the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Local TDs and councillors also objected.
It was rejected on a number of grounds, including traffic hazard/public safety on local road network, and loss of amenity to the area.
Kilsaran appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanála last year, and earlier this month the planning authority approved the large quarry.
The planning authority concluded that the “limited lifetime” of the quarry among other factors meant that it would “not seriously injure the visual or residential amenities of the area and would be acceptable in terms of traffic and safety convenience”.
The authority also said: “The Board considered that it had not been demonstrated that the proposed development would depreciate the value of properties in the area.”
An Bord Pleanála’s decision has several conditions attached that the company must adhere to in order to protect and safeguard residential and local amenities, and in the interest of traffic safety. But concerns have been raised previously that similar conditions are not enforced adequately.
‘Disappointment’
Local resident Sarah Burke said locals were “extremely disappointed” by the decision from An Bord Pleanála to ignore the serious concerns of residents and businesses in this area, but to also disregard the inspector’s concerns.
The inspector wrote that the proposed quarry was contrary to the policy requirements of the Kildare County Development Plan 2017-2023.
“What good is having a County Development Plan,” Burke said, “and regulations to protect people, the environment and the heritage of an area, when all of these protections can be sidelined in favor of big business with a stroke of a pen?”
She said that there was a fear that this would become “the tip of the iceberg”.
“How on earth can we claim as a nation to care about climate action when something like this is allowed to go ahead? When a rural, residential community is faced with a minimum of 72 HGV truck movements per day slowing, breaking and taking off right outside our children’s school yard, outside our homes?”
The inspector also said that the roads serving the proposed quarry were “substandard” in terms of condition, capacity, width and surface, and are “inadequate” to accommodate the type and volume of traffic movements generated by the proposed development.
This would “endanger public safety by reason of a traffic hazard”, it concluded.
The report also said that Kilsaran had not concluded that the River Barrow and River Nore would not be adversely affected by the proposed development.
‘Continue to fight’
The Ballyshannon Action Group, which was formed in 2019 to oppose this quarry, said it would “continuing their fight” against the development.
“We have not gone away and are continuing to fight this inappropriate development on behalf of our community, but we need financial support to take our case further,” said a spokesperson for the Ballyshannon Action Group.
“We have a matter of weeks to apply for a Judicial Review of this appalling decision and we are under no illusions, this has always been a David versus Goliath struggle, we need all the help we can get.”
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Regardless of your allegiances, the fact that a fake tweet was read out on a presidential debate is shocking.
Seanie should just go away and stop making an even bigger fool of himself, if that was possible.
Agreed. RTE need to be more careful about verifying and broadcasting communications or they shouldn’t be hosting such events.
It’s not the first time RTE have allowed misinformation to be broadcast.
Not that I’d feel sorry for him though!
Indeed, two wrongs do not make a right!
Oh no… Poor Seán Gallagher. My heart bleeds for him. Boo hoo…….
It’s not acceptable that our public funded broadcaster manufactures the news is it? – no matter who its aimed at. Next thing they will be telling us things like the economy is on track and all this austerity is working.
Is he honestly complaining about the fact that he was found out as the crooked Fianna Fail toss pot that he is?? Anyone connected to that bent organisation should think twice before raising their heads above the parapet again!! Oh that money was just resting in my bank account…..
Mine too !
and as my mother would say “and so do my piles”
Wouldnt you think the SG team would shut up and go away. He would have been able to deal with the unexpected if he hadnt been so economical with the truth earlier…lesson there Sean if you dont tell the truth to begin with you have to be able to remember what you said ..oh and dont include the word ENVELOPE
It would be great if people could stick to the issue.
It’s the credibiity of RTÉ that’s on the line here. In all fairness to them (and I don’t think RTÉ are a brilliant outfit) they at least mentioned it, believing it to be true. Would it better serve the public interest if the story had been initially suppressed? As long as the source is clearly attributed to twitter people can decide if it is credible or not. The public aren’t stupid and know that a lot of stuff on social networking is not true.
EVERYBODY above seems to ‘forget’ or to be unaware that there WAS NO CHEQUE or money or ‘ENVELOPE’ handed to or collected by Seán Gallagher.
RTE are owned by the state (rember)
I think seany envelope Gallagher is and will do anything to claw back any decent respect,he must think the Irish public are stupid,it’s blatantly obvious thAt this big babboon is guilty,as are all the other affiliates of fianna fail,the way I and the majority of Irish public see it ,is if any so called politician wants to be taken serious,they need to publicly disown and disband fianna fail,there no way any decent educated Irish citizen would even think of voting for fianna fail,anyone associated with fianna fail,if they have any sense of respect or morals,should at least join a credible honest hardworking political or independent party,the heroes of 1916 would be sickened to see what they gave there lives up for,the likes of the low life sneakyhyprocrites,to name a few Bertie ahearn john donohue ray Burke haughey Michael Lowry and many more scum low lifes,for putting my children in a position where they dill be paying off there debts,or worse having to emigrate for what them leeches have done to Ireland and the 95percent ordinary tax paying genuine Irish citizens,I say we should have a Coup and elect our own decent goverment..
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