A High Court judge, Mr Justice Garrett Simons, has ruled that a waste recycling facility in Co. Offaly, can now only accept construction and demolition waste.
In his judgment, Mr Simons made orders prohibiting the site; latter controlled by the facility operator Guessford Ltd, trading as Oxigen Environmental at Barnan, Daingean, Co Offaly, (62mls from Thurles) from accepting any other type of waste material.
The judge made his ruling in proceedings brought by several local residents, all of whom live in the vicinity of the site. The residents had argued that certain activities being carried out at the facility were in breach of its planning permission and unexceptionable within a residential community.
The facility can no longer accept material such as mixed dry recyclables, from household or commercial skips or waste from civic amenity sites.
Oxigen, in opposing this action, had argued that it was authorised, thanks to a permit initially granted by Offaly Co Council in 2010, to carry out a much broader range of activities at the facility, including receiving and treating commercial waste and timber.
However, Mr Justice Garrett Simons said that he was making an order prohibiting Oxigen from accepting fridges, waste electrical and electronic equipment, beds, mattresses, sofas and tyres and the treatment of timber by shredding same, at the site. Was this where our Tipperary Mattress Bonus Give-away were bound?
A similar case is pending here in Thurles, following Tipperary County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for yet a third material recovery facility within Thurles Town.
This latest facility was proposed for construction at the now visibly dishevelled looking Cabragh Business Park, at Ballycurrane, Thurles; same situated in the immediate vicinity of several private housing estates and within meters of a vast area of preserved wetland habitat.
Permission was initially, poorly applied for in February 2021, by Ryan Cleaning Event Specialists Ltd and because of planning application failures, was applied for again in July 2021.
As expected, over sixty persons, as individuals together with local businesses; some of the latter who are themselves based in Cabragh Business Park, have now lodged objections with the Tipperary Co. Council local authority and with An Bord Pleanala, following the granting of permission by Tipperary Co. Council, subject to 11 further conditions imposed by the latter.
It should be highlighted that initially, in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the objectors unable to meet as a group [in keeping with Public Health Guidelines, demanding strict adherence to social distancing and face covering.] communicated with all elected Councillors and Teachtaí Dála (latter Irish elected politicans) within the county of Tipperary.
The communication sought to seek that the planning application be set back, until such time as the COVID restrictions were removed. However, response from elected representatives, as is always expected, went almost totally unanswered.
Local residents and objectors to the proposed planning and the granting of permission by Tipperary Co. Council, are now somewhat heartened by this recent High Court ruling, which could have severely impacted on those residing close to the Co. Offaly facility.
Interesting to note that all 60 plus objectors to the Thurles ‘Ryan Cleaning Event Specialists Ltd’ planning application had to pay €20.00 each to the local authority to object, while Teachtaí Dála and Local Councillors are totally exempt. We see this in recent communications accepted by Tipperary Co. Council to planning objections, made by Co. Tipperary TD Mr Jackie Cahill and Councillor Sean Ryan, Littleton, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Both men use the phrase in their objection communications “I am advised that as a councillor submitting a personal planning submission that I am exempt from the planning fee”.
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