Council Lost Planning Control Over Hill of Allen Due to Error

kildare | environment | press release Tuesday October 28, 2008 17:59 by Spokesperson - Hill of Allen Action Group

The Hill of Allen Action Group has received documents from Kildare County Council following a ruling by the Information Commissioner and Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly that all court papers and all other documents relating to the planning case of Roadstone's quarry at the Hill of Allen be released.

The documents reveal that when planners at Kildare County Council instructed Roadstone to apply for planning permission more than a year ago, they were more than two months late in doing so.

This prompted Roadstone to ask the Council to withdraw its instruction, and when that did not happen, they brought the matter to the High Court in a judicial review.

That review was eventually struck out but the two parties have, since then, come to an agreement under Section 47 of Planning and Development Act 2000, which sets conditions on the quarrying activity there.

The Hill of Allen Action Group understands that the agreement was finalised in the past number of weeks. The documents which have been released to them show that in the early negotiations during the summer and early autumn of 2007, Kildare County Council attempted to put a 20-year limit on the lifespan of the quarry.

Roadstone rejected this in favour of 50 years. The Council's request for €70,000 for the maintenance of surrounding roads was also rejected in favour of a €50,000 contribution.

The documents released to the Hill of Allen Action Group include the first five drafts of the agreement, dating from June 10, 2007 to August 1, 2007.

The Group, which opposes the continued destruction of Kildare's most important heritage site, has since September 2007 campaigned to access secret documents relating to the agreement between the two sides.

For the past year Roadstone and Kildare County Council have refused to explain why the quarrying company challenged the Council's right to require them to apply for planning permission.

Under the provisions of EU Directive 2003/4/EC (2003) and European Communities Access to Information on the Environment Regulations S.I. 133 (2007), the Group appealed to the Information Commissioner and Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, to force the Council to release court papers and other documents about the quarry that they had held back.

While the newly released papers have answered some questions, the picture remains incomplete.

The Hill of Allen Action Group has not been able to see documents relating to negotiations between the two sides for the past year since August 1, 2007, and does not, as yet, have access to the wording of the final agreement.

The Group is calling on Kildare County Council to explain to the public how the agreement will satisfy EU legislation requiring Environment Impact Assessments and public participation in these studies, and how it addresses the provisions of the Kildare County Development Plan that preserve the profile of the Hill and its surrounds.

They also request an explanation of the legal consequences of the Council's allowing Roadstone to change the words "restore" and "restoration" to "remediate" and "remediation" in the clause that deals with the restoration plan for the quarry. A spokesperson for the Group said, "both the County Development Plan and the environmental code of the Irish Concrete Federation use the terms "restoration and "reinstatement," yet from the drafts we've seen it appears that the Council has agreed to a less stringent term, for some reason." the Group points out that both the development plan and the concrete federation's best practice calls for "progressive, phased" reinstatement, and the federation calls for its members to consult with the local community in formulating a plan for reinstatement and after-use of a quarry, allowing for public participation in decision-making. But neither of these issues made it into any of the agreement drafts seen by the Group.

The Group said, "this planning case has been characterised by an unusual, utter lack of transparency, which is all the more disturbing because there is high public interest in this case of a quarry that has, according to Kildare County Council, significant environmental effects, and which is destroying a site of high heritage value."

According to the Group, the process has been not only secretive, but also unfair. "has the council taken any enforcement action regarding the ancillary activities going on at the allen quarry? A planning inspector noted the unauthorised development back in 2005, but three years on it seems nothing's been done. Why is that?"

The Group is studying the papers and is considering its options. In the meantime, they call on the Council to provide a full, public account of the case.