Port company left with €250k bill

THE Port of Cork company has been hit with a legal bill of almost €250,000 following the decision on its container terminal.

An Bord Pleanála awarded the costs against the company after ruling against its plans to build a €225 million facility at its Oysterbank site in the lower reaches of Cork harbour.

The costs are associated with the Bord’s oral hearing into the proposed container terminal project, which ran for three weeks in April after more than 500 written submissions were made objecting to the project.

As part of its decision, the Bord ordered the port to pay:

n€176,000 towards the costs of holding the oral hearing, conducting the investigation and its inspector’s costs;

n€20,000 towards Cork Co Council’s costs for legal and other experts who gave evidence at the hearing;

nand almost €50,000 towards the hefty legal fees and expert costs incurred by the Cork Harbour Environmental Protection Association (CHEPA), the main objector to the project.

It is estimated that CHEPA, which was represented by solicitor, Joe Noonan, at the hearing, spent close to €150,000 presenting its case.

Mr Noonan said it was always the view of residents that this project should be rejected on planning grounds.

Concerns were also expressed by Cork Co Council, the Department of Defence, UCC’s coastal management unit, and Bord Fáilte, he pointed out.

“The pressure on communities involved in cases like this is immense. It is to their great credit that they weathered that storm,” Mr Noonan said.

Monkstown resident Don Teegan, who was involved with the CHEPA campaign, said locals in Monkstown, Passage West and Cobh, had dipped into their own pockets to fund the campaign.

“It cost us close to €150,000 in financial terms but in emotional terms, it was the equivalent of 10 years of our lives — blood, sweat and tears,” he said.

“The port had senior counsel, junior counsel, solicitors, PR gurus, a barrage of experts and a backroom team who could have proved that water runs uphill.

“But we have people paying through standing orders every week to help fund our campaign.

“We set up fundraising events and we hope yesterday’s positive decision for us will encourage more people to help us clear our loans.”