Disability centre warns it will be forced to close if landfill goes ahead

A GROUP in Tipperary catering for people with disabilities yesterday warned it will be forced to close after permission was granted for a landfill nearby.

A local authority’s seven year-long battle for a licence for a landfill has ended with permission being granted on 10 acres of the 40 acre site in south Tipperary.

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted a licence, subject to 12 conditions for the site at Grangemockler. Chief among them is that the local authority maintain a 70 metre buffer zone inside the perimeter of the site.

But a solicitor for local landowners say they will continue to fight the matter.

A local community for people with disabilities, the Camphill Community, yesterday conceded it may be forced to close if the landfill project goes ahead.

Camphill Community founder Joseph Teppan said the landfill will destroy the peaceful, tranquil surroundings of the Camphill centre which caters for more than 20 adults with learning difficulties. He added the landfill would undermine what the group is trying to achieve.

“We are terribly disappointed with the decision by the EPA but we are not surprised. It the dump goes here then we will go. “We are totally committed to providing a high quality of life for the people who come here but that will basically be diminished,” he said. The anger was widespread. Local farmer Martin Madden, whose land lies just 1km from the site, said: “The EPA says that the four hectares of space for which the licence has been granted will take rubbish for the next 15 years. We can’t see how it will last that long. We will be fighting this all the way. This battle is not over.”

Senior executive officer with South Tipperary County Council Jim Harney said: “We have a major problem with waste in this region, similar to the problems encountered elsewhere. We’ve just one landfill now at Donohill, about five miles north of Tipperary town. We have been closing other, smaller landfills.

“The Donohill site is practically exhausted and we have to do something to provide for the waste of the 26,000 households and 80,000 people of south Tipperary.”

Conditions on the permission cover the scope and management of the site, as well as the facilities, infrastructure and buildings required on the site. It also details what has to be done when the site is exhausted.

The operation and management of waste at the site will be subject to continuous inspection and emissions will also have to be controlled.

The local authority has also been required to develop the road to the site which will have to be widened. And as landowners have not been willing to supply the land, it has been the subject of compulsory purchase orders which will be proceeding shortly.

Landfill timeline

November 11, 1997 - South Tipperary County Council applies to the EPA for a licence for the Grangemockler site.

November, 1999 - EPA proposes granting the licence.

November, 1999 - Objectors lodge complaints with agency.

April, 2000 - Oral hearing takes place over nine days in Carrick-on-Suir.

June, 2000 - Agency issues the licence.

June, 2000 - Judicial review sought by landowners.

December, 2000 - Mr Justice Kelly in the High Court makes an order quashing the licence.

July, 2004 - EPA grants a licence, subject to conditions, for 10 acres of the 40-acre site.