Council ready to move against quarry operation

A LOCAL authority is preparing an injunction to halt an allegedly illegal quarry operation in an EU-designated area of special conservation.

Limerick County Council confirmed it will proceed with injunctive proceedings within a matter of weeks against the Whelan Group.

The company, based in Clare, claims it has a permit, granted in 1979, to excavate rock from the Gooseberry Hill site in the village of Ballyorgan, located several miles off the main Mitchelstown-Kilmallock road.

Concerned locals said the row over the quarry has split the village, which has a population under 100.

Colette Noonan, who is opposed to the quarry, said: “Ballyorgan is almost unique in that it has four EU-sanctioned areas of special conservation and two national heritage designations.

“In recent years, we have successfully resisted two proposals for super dumps in this area,” she said, “and we are in the process of putting together a petition against the quarry, which is unauthorised.”

Nestling within the Ballyhoura Mountain area, the village is a tourist retreat for hill walking and cycling enthusiasts.

“This is a prime tourist area and we have appealed to the authorities to decide whether it is going to be heavy-industrial or tourist-friendly,” Ms Noonan said.

Villagers have complained about large lorries daily rumbling past a 16-pupil school on a very narrow road.

“Traffic in and out of the quarry is of main road proportions while the quarrying operation, itself, is increasing in intensity,” said Nick Brown, who owns a local mansion, Castle Oliver.

“The roads around the quarry are too narrow to accommodate two cars in some places, let alone large lorries,” he said.

County council planning enforcement officer Michael O’Brien said a warning notice under the Planning and Development Act 2000 for unauthorised quarrying was served on the company in January but it had no effect.

A spokesman for the quarry company, which employs around 300 people in civil engineering and road surfacing projects countrywide, was notavailable for comment yesterday.

However, in verbal and written correspondence with interested parties, the company said it had a permit, granted 25 years ago, to extract rock from the Gooseberry Hill site.

However, Mr O’Brien said: “The council’s view is that the company did not take up, within a five-year period, the permission granted in 1979.”

Mr Brown said the main environmental hazards are noise pollution and visual impact.

In the process of restoring the 100-room mansion, which is of historical and architectural significance, Mr Brown said: “When blasting takes place, the windows rattle and the vibrations can clearly be felt.”

The house, a listed building, is less than a half-mile from the quarry.

Mr Brown said: “Ballyorgan needs jobs and everybody knows that, but the quarry, which has led to the stripping of fauna and flora from Gooseberry Hill, is becoming an eyesore.”

Mary Mannix, who lives three miles from the village but whose children attend the local national school, said: “The aura of peace and tranquillity in the village is being destroyed.”