Plans for super dump resubmitted to council

ONE of the country’s largest private waste-disposal firms has resubmitted plans for a super dump to Cork County Council.

Greenstar believes a change in national policy may see it finally get planning permission for a controversial super dump on the Cork-Limerick border. The company was refused permission for the €15 million super dump by both Cork County Council and An Bord Pleanála in 2004, but believes that policy change may see it succeed this time and allow it to bury 140,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

People living by the forestry site at Ballyguyroe, near Kildorrery, have vowed to fight the latest proposal and in the past have won significant victories. In 2001 they succeeded in a High Court action to close a dump in the same area, which was operated at the time by the county council.

Despite the An Bord Pleanála rejection two years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency gave Greenstar a licence to operate a dump at Ballyguyroe.

“The plan will form a critical part of the company’s integrated waste management infrastructure in the south of the country and will primarily accept residual, non-recyclable waste from Greenstar’s recovery facilities and those of its customers throughout Munster,” a company spokeswoman said yesterday.

She claimed that the 2004 application was refused because it was “premature” in the context of the then awaited revised Cork Waste Management Plan.

“Significant changes in planning circumstances have taken place in the interim and this latest application has particular regard for current national waste management policy, up-to-date published information from the EPA on waste data and remaining residual landfill capacity,” she said.